Newsletter: Trump’s lasting immigration impact

Win or lose this election, President Trump has made immigration changes that will long affect the U.S. and, especially, California.

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Trump’s Lasting Immigration Impact

Running low on cash and behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden in polls, President Trump made a brief stop Sunday in Newport Beach to raise money at a high-dollar fundraiser, as supporters and others took to the street.

For nearly four years, California has been among Trump’s favorite punching bags, in large part due to clashes over his central 2016 campaign promise: to restrict immigration.

Trump’s more than 400 executive actions to limit immigration have had an outsize effect on the Golden State. They have included targeting Silicon Valley by squeezing high-skilled workers from overseas, curtailing immigration based on family reunification, separating migrant families at the border and attempting to repeal federal protections for so-called Dreamers.

Biden has pledged to reverse course if he defeats Trump in this year’s election, but he would inherit an immigration system that faces a ballooning backlog of cases. Some of the effects of Trump’s policies would be difficult to erase.

More Politics

— In the homestretch of the presidential campaign, with the U.S. coronavirus caseload trending ominously upward, the rival campaigns of Trump and Biden more than ever are providing a clash of contrasts as to how to contain COVID-19 and tend to the virus-battered economy.

— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set a Tuesday deadline for more progress with the White House on a fiscal stimulus deal before the Nov. 3 election, while Trump renewed his offer to go beyond the dollar amounts now on the table.

— Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Trump was inciting “domestic terrorism” following “lock her up” chants at his rally this weekend in the state.

A Fear Factor

A new survey by UC Davis researchers has found that in the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Californians bought new guns and changed the way they stored their firearms.

Those surveyed said they were doing so because they feared that the pandemic would unleash unrest, government crackdowns and societal disintegration. Researchers said the result will probably be an increase in firearm-related injuries and deaths, including suicides and the consequences of accidental discharges.

By mid-July, the pandemic was cited as a factor in the purchase of an estimated 110,000 new firearms in the state, they reported. Forty-three percent of sales went to people who did not previously own a firearm.

Crisis in the Galapagos

The biodiversity of the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador is famously rich, but these days it is subject to a double threat: Chinese fishing fleets and the fallout from the pandemic.

This summer, more than 300 Chinese fishing vessels — many designed to hold 1,000 tons of catch — waited at the marine preserve’s border, ready to snatch up sea life as it migrated south toward the waters off Peru and Chile.

Meanwhile, the pandemic grounded the unofficial network of local tour boats and fishing vessels that has worked to protect the Galapagos. The lack of tourism has meant the animals are free to roam, but it also means there are fewer people watching out for their well-being and picking up trash.

Seventh Heaven

For the third time in four years, the Dodgers will be in the World Series. Will this finally be their year to win?

After finishing with the best record in baseball over the course of a 60-game regular season abbreviated by the pandemic, the Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres in the first two rounds of the postseason. Then they fell behind 3 games to 1 against the Atlanta Braves before completing a comeback series victory Sunday night in Game 7 with Cody Bellinger’s seventh-inning blast and three perfect innings by pitcher Julio Urías.

The Dodgers open the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday in hopes of winning their first title since 1988.

OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

— A Times investigation found that since 2017, at least 265 calls made to police through 911 and nonemergency lines have reported violence and abuse inside California’s four privately run federal detention centers overseen by ICE. Half the calls alleged sex crimes, including rape, sexual assault and abuse against detainees.

— In early June, four National Guard spy planes took to the skies over several cities to monitor street protests. One of them was sent to the affluent Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills, where the head of the California National Guard lives.

— At USC, a conflict between two students grew into a fierce debate between free speech and hate speech.

— She was suffering on the streets of Santa Monica. Columnist Steve Lopez looks at what it took to rescue her.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

In April 1972, John DeLorean quit his job as a General Motors executive. By the end of 1973, he had decided to set up a network of companies to design, manufacture and market a sports car in his own flamboyant image.

The gull-winged car he created would go on to develop a cult following and star as the time-traveling vehicle in the “Back to the Future” films of the 1980s and ’90s. But DeLorean’s venture struggled to pay the bills.

“On Oct. 19, 1982, under the unblinking eye of a hidden video camera, DeLorean was arrested by FBI agents at the Sheraton Plaza La Reina Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport,” his 2005 obituary in The Times states. “Agents said he was part of a scheme to shore up the sagging finances of his company by buying — and then reselling, at enormous profit — 220 pounds of cocaine from Colombia.”

Despite being videotaped in the act of allegedly buying cocaine — and pronouncing it “better than gold” — DeLorean was acquitted by a jury in 1984. He died in 2005 at age 80.

John DeLorean and his wife, Cristina Ferrare, leave court in 1984 after he was acquitted of drug charges. Two months later, she filed for divorce.

(Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

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CALIFORNIA

— Can Proposition 16 give a boost to Latino-, Black-, Asian- and women-owned businesses?

— Authorities say an employee of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority was fatally stabbed Friday night at the 7th Street/Metro Center subway station.

— A Woodland Hills hiker who was reported missing for two weeks inside Zion National Park in Utah was found and reunited with her family.

— In San Diego, the North County Transit District plans to install fences along miles of railroad track in three coastal cities by the end of 2020, a move many residents, especially those in Del Mar, have fought for years.

NATION-WORLD

— After struggling to ramp up coronavirus testing, the U.S. can now screen several million people daily, thanks to a growing supply of rapid tests. But the boom comes with a new challenge: keeping track of the results.

— Despite a second attempt at a cease-fire, Armenia and Azerbaijan traded accusations of violating the new truce in their conflict over a separatist region.

— France’s prime minister joined demonstrators who rallied together across the country in tribute to a history teacher who was beheaded near Paris after discussing caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad with his class.

— A plan to retrieve the Titanic’s radio equipment has sparked a debate: Could the world’s most famous shipwreck still hold remains of passengers and crew who died a century ago?

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Classic movies on Disney+ that feature racist stereotypes and other problematic elements now include a new content warning.

— Filmmaker Miranda July and actress Evan Rachel Wood decode the “love language” of “Kajillionaire.”

— Playwright Heidi Schreck interviews TV writer-producer Norman Lear about what the Constitution means to them.

— Rhonda Fleming, who was known as the Queen of Technicolor during Hollywood’s Golden Age and who made a mark as a philanthropist by channeling her wealth and prominence into helping others, has died at 97.

BUSINESS

— CBS Chief Executive George Cheeks has apologized to the Armenian ambassador after two employees made offensive comments to protesters outside CBS Studios in Studio City.

— General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit says it will pull the human backup drivers from its vehicles in San Francisco by the end of the year after obtaining a permit from California’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

SPORTS

— The San Francisco 49ers shut down the Rams and reminded them how hard winning the NFC West will be.

— Every starter from UCLA football’s deep wide receiving corps last year is returning.

OPINION

— At her confirmation hearings, Judge Amy Coney Barrett demonstrated that she is learned in the law. That’s not enough, The Times’ editorial board writes.

— Start with Ice Cube if you want to understand why some Black men support Trump, columnist Erika D. Smith writes.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

— Dr. Anthony Fauci finds himself caught up in presidential politics, under protection from death threats and forced to defend science itself. (CBS News)

— Russian activist Alexey Navalny talks about his recovery after being poisoned and his future. (The New Yorker)

ONLY IN L.A.

With toughness and love, football coach Hector Albert Padilla became an institution in East L.A., teaching the game at Roosevelt High and then rival Garfield High before moving to East L.A. College. But football was only part of Padilla’s impact on the community. When he died this month at age 90, former players recalled his fatherly presence in their lives over decades.

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