The demonstration was organized by the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice alongside several regional groups, including the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, Inland Empire Labor Institute, Inland Empire Labor Council and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. Participants gathered at Feldheym Public Library before beginning the march around 1:30 p.m.

    Marchers moved through the downtown area, making stops near San Bernardino City Hall and the city’s Immigration Field Office before converging at the intersection of E Street and Rialto Avenue. Protesters temporarily blocked traffic while chanting, holding signs and listening to speakers during the afternoon rally.

    May Day, also recognized internationally as International Workers’ Day, traces its roots back to labor demonstrations connected to the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago and the push for an eight-hour workday. In recent years, May Day events throughout the United States have increasingly tied together issues involving labor rights, immigration reform, affordable living and public safety concerns.

    San Bernardino resident Ron Alvarado, who is currently running for the city’s First Ward council seat, said he attended the march to advocate for stronger labor protections and community-centered development projects.

    “I’m here because I want to stand for the community, for public sector jobs, for living wage jobs and for community benefit agreements,” Alvarado said during the event.

    Alvarado said local leaders need to focus more on keeping tax revenue and economic opportunities within San Bernardino neighborhoods. He added that developers should be required to create agreements that directly benefit residents through better wages and job opportunities.

    Ontario resident Andrea Galvan said the event highlighted how closely labor issues, environmental concerns and immigration policies are connected throughout the region.

    “I’m here today to be part of this movement of labor groups, immigrant rights groups and environmental justice groups that have come together across the Inland Empire to fight for our communities,” Galvan said. “All of these issues are connected.”

    Galvan said residents deserve cleaner air, safer neighborhoods and fair treatment for workers while also ensuring immigrant families feel welcomed and protected.

    Fontana resident Luz Perez, who is also running for city council in Fontana, said immigration enforcement actions have created fear for many local families and negatively impacted small businesses.

    “It has really affected our communities, especially our small businesses,” Perez said. “People are afraid to come out, and families are living in fear.”

    Perez said demonstrators were urging leaders to end immigration raids and expand protections for immigrant communities throughout the Inland Empire.

    Even as temperatures climbed throughout the afternoon, marchers from communities including San Bernardino, Fontana and Ontario continued walking through downtown streets while carrying banners and chanting in support of workers and immigrant families.

    Organizers said the turnout reflected the Inland Empire’s growing labor and community activism movement, particularly in a region heavily impacted by warehouse industry growth, air quality concerns and immigration-related issues.

    For many attendees, the demonstration served as both a show of solidarity and a call for broader investment in working-class communities, safer neighborhoods and stronger protections for immigrant residents across the region.

The post Nearly 1,000 Join May Day March in San Bernardino Demanding Worker and Immigrant Protections appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The debate, broadcast on CNN, was one of their last chances to pitch themselves to voters and stand out from the pack in their primary election bids to succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who terms out in January. Mail voting is already underway, and voters have until June 2 to cast their ballots. The top-two vote getters will advance to the general election in November, regardless of party.

Though California hasn’t had a Republican governor in more than a decade, the specter hangs over the race as the field is still crowded with less than a month to go.

Candidates who took part in the debate include Democrats Xavier Becerra, a former health secretary for the Biden administration; Katie Porter, a former congresswoman; Tom Steyer, a billionaire climate activist; Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose; and Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles; as well as Republicans Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator; and Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff.

Here’s how they responded on some of the key issues:

Universal healthcare

The candidates sparred over whether they’d eliminate private health insurance in favor of a state-run system, an idea that has failed repeatedly in Sacramento.

Porter, who backs a government-run healthcare system, pressed Becerra on his stance since he’s wavered on the issue recently.

“Do you support CalCare — California having its own state-run, single-payer system, yes or no?” Porter asked.

Becerra gave a vague answer.

“The most important thing about having a Medicare for All plan is that it includes everyone,” he said. “What we have to do is get to the point where we are covering everyone with something like Medicare for All.”

Mahan, who opposes a state-run system, later chimed in and said Becerra “was unable to clearly answer the most important question on healthcare.”

Becerra contested: “I did answer that question.”

Steyer joined Porter in saying he’d support it, while Bianco, Hilton, and Villaraigosa said it wasn’t practical or would cost too much.

When the debate turned to healthcare access for immigrants, the candidates were divided.

Steyer, Porter and Becerra said they supported state-funded healthcare coverage for low-income immigrants without legal status, which Newsom passed then pared back. Bianco called the policy “ridiculous.”

Immigration

Other arguments about immigration fell largely along party lines.

The Democrats sharply rebuked the Trump administration’s immigration raids.

Steyer said the state should prosecute federal agents and immigration enforcement leaders who racially profile or use violence against Californians. Mahan said business owners in San Jose have lost customers because many immigrants are afraid to leave their house.

But Bianco said he supported Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, saying agents were enforcing the law and working to deport people he referred to as “criminals” in the country illegally.

Hilton, who’s from England, pointed out that he was the only immigrant on stage. The candidates shouldn’t conflate legal and illegal immigration, he said.

“Although it is the federal government’s responsibility to determine and implement immigration policy, I think it’s important that all the laws are peacefully enforced,” Hilton said. “As governor, I would make sure that we work with the federal government to enforce our laws.”

President Donald Trump

The Democrats each emphasized they would fight Trump on immigration policy in particular.

Neither Hilton, whom Trump has endorsed, nor Bianco, invoked him much except to say that Democrats unfairly blame him for the state’s woes.

Becerra mentioned Trump the most, noting he sued the administration many times while serving as state attorney general from 2017 to 2021, when he was appointed health secretary under then-President Joe Biden.

“I’m going to repeat Donald Trump as often as I have because he’s the menace,” Becerra declared.

When Villaraigosa pressed Hilton to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Hilton refused to answer.

“Endlessly going on about Donald Trump doesn’t serve the needs of the struggling families and small businesses,” Hilton said.

Mahan sought to find middle ground. He said Becerra was wrong to blame high gas prices solely on Trump, but also noted that San Jose has sued the Trump administration over immigration policy. He said it was disqualifying for the Republican candidates to support Trump’s “cruel and ineffective policies.”

Porter, meanwhile, put it simply: “Donald Trump sucks.”

Gas tax and proposed billionaires tax

Steyer was the only candidate on stage to say he’d vote for a proposed billionaires tax expected to appear before voters in November. The one-time tax proposal aims to backfill funding cuts signed into law by Trump that reduced healthcare access for low-income people.

Porter also supports some increased taxes on California’s ultrawealthy but called the proposed tax a temporary fix to a long-term problem.

Meanwhile Mahan said he would suspend the gas tax because it unfairly burdens working families.

Hilton would make people’s first $100,000 free of income tax.

Mahan and Steyer said they’d tax artificial intelligence companies and use the money to support workers, for example through workforce development training.

“The answer is to tax these companies, not to regulate them to the point that they simply go to other places,” Mahan said.

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    The report focuses on immigration detainers, which are requests made by ICE asking local law enforcement agencies to notify federal officials before releasing a deportable immigrant from custody. Detainers also request that inmates be held for up to 48 additional hours so ICE agents have time to take them into federal custody.

    Data compiled for 2025 shows Riverside County transferred 158 out of 1,380 inmates with immigration detainers into ICE custody, amounting to an 11.4% transfer rate. San Bernardino County transferred 180 out of 1,674 detainees, or 10.8%. Both counties ranked above the statewide average of 8.49%, according to the analysis.

    By comparison, Los Angeles County transferred 4.6% of inmates with immigration detainers, while Orange County transferred 7.6%. Across California, 2,077 inmates out of 24,438 people flagged with immigration detainers were ultimately transferred to ICE custody during 2025.

    The findings were assembled by Keith Maben, a sophomore at Claremont McKenna College and head of the Immigration Task Force at the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights. Maben said Riverside and San Bernardino counties stood out because their transfer rates were noticeably higher than California’s average.

    “San Bernardino and Riverside County were on the higher end of enforcement data,” Maben said. “Both of them had results where about 10 to 12% of these detainees actually resulted in people going into ICE custody.”

    Maben noted that while the percentage differences may appear small on paper, the contrast becomes clearer when compared to counties such as Santa Clara County, where less than 1% of detainees with immigration detainers were transferred to ICE.

    The report also found a pattern between transfer rates and political leanings across California counties. Counties with more conservative voter bases and sheriffs tended to report higher levels of cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

    Among the counties with the highest transfer percentages were Imperial County at 33.7%, Kings County at 29.1%, Santa Barbara County at 24.9%, Tuolumne County at 24.3%, and Del Norte County at 22.2%. Riverside County ranked 12th statewide, while San Bernardino County ranked 13th.

    Maben said his research examined how sheriff’s departments interpret California’s Senate Bill 54, also known as the California Values Act, which limits cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities.

    Through public records requests, the Mgrublian Center obtained documents outlining agreements between Riverside County and federal agencies, including a 2020 memorandum with Homeland Security Investigations and a 2024 agreement with U.S. Border Patrol tied to drug smuggling investigations.

    “We found a very strong effect where California sheriffs who tended to cooperate with the federal government or have memorandums of understanding also tended to have higher enforcement data,” Maben said.

    One document highlighted in the report was Riverside County’s 2018 ICE Detainer Eligibility Worksheet, which lists 30 serious or violent felonies that may justify notifying ICE before an inmate’s release.

    Immigrant rights advocates say the numbers are troubling, though not unexpected. Eddie Torres, policy director for the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, pointed to the presence of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the nearby Desert View Annex as a possible reason the Inland Empire sees higher transfer rates.

    “When you have a detention center near you, it makes sense you’d have a higher rate of transfers because it makes logistical sense,” Torres said.

    The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice is part of the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition, a group of organizations pushing to close the Adelanto detention facilities operated by GEO Group. Torres said advocates came close to shutting the facilities down in 2023 before federal officials renewed the contract for another five years.

    The discussion around immigration transfers has also become tied to California’s broader political debate over immigration enforcement. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is currently running for governor, has publicly advocated for stronger cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies. His campaign platform calls for ending policies such as SB 54 and allowing local law enforcement to work more closely with federal immigration officials in criminal cases involving undocumented immigrants.

    In response to questions about the report, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Lt. Deirdre Vickers said the department follows California law and does not exercise discretion beyond the legal requirements outlined in SB 54.

    “The Riverside Sheriff’s Office complies with the law,” Vickers said in a written statement. “First, the Sheriff’s Office receives a request for transfers from ICE. The Sheriff’s Office then determines the inmates who meet the requirements under SB 54. Of those inmates, ICE determines which inmates are transferred into their custody.”

    The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department disputed portions of the data used in the report. Department officials said they received 1,423 ICE notifications in 2025 rather than the 1,674 cited in the analysis, and said only 47 inmates were transferred to ICE custody instead of 180.

    Maben acknowledged that some of the data may be imperfect because it was reconstructed through federal public records requests and not reported directly by ICE.

    “I think it’s important to take this data with a grain of salt,” Maben said. “It tells us something, but it’s not going to inform the whole story.”

    ICE also questioned the accuracy of the Deportation Data Project, which supplied much of the information used in the analysis. In a statement, the agency said its internal systems do not support the project’s numbers and that ICE could not verify the completeness or accuracy of the outside data.

    San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus argued that restrictions created by SB 54 have shifted immigration enforcement away from county jails and into public spaces. Dicus said allowing transfers to occur inside secure jail facilities would reduce risks to both officers and the public.

    “Those in-custody transfers provided a more predictable, secure, and efficient process for law enforcement and reduced risk to the public,” Dicus said in a written statement. “Current law prohibits that level of coordination.”

    Los Angeles County officials said their department requires a federal judicial warrant signed by a judge before an inmate can be transferred to ICE custody, in accordance with county policy and California law. Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes also stated publicly that ICE ultimately decides whether to pick up inmates with detainers after their jail commitments end.

    Meanwhile, immigrant rights advocates believe immigration enforcement activity will continue increasing throughout 2026 as the federal government expands detention operations nationwide. Torres said advocacy groups are increasingly concerned about what they describe as more tactical immigration enforcement operations occurring in courthouses and other public settings.

    Maben’s full report for the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

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Advocates say the agency began transferring immigrant detainees to the McFarland facility last week.

The facility, called Central Valley Annex, brings the total number of active detention centers in California to eight, up from six at the beginning of 2025. They are all operated by private companies and they have a total capacity of nearly 10,000 beds. 

Both of the detention centers that opened since President Donald Trump took office had been used as private prisons until California’s incarcerated population fell to a level that allowed the Newsom administration to end those contracts.

The latest figures show an average of about 5,337 people are being held in California immigration detention facilities, according to DetentionReports.com. That number is up 72% from the average daily population of about 3,104 individuals being held in California in April 2025. 

This newest facility is part of a cluster of detention centers in Kern County, which includes the Golden State Annex in McFarland. It is unclear if GEO obtained conditional use permits or business licenses from the city of McFarland to start detaining immigrants at Central Valley Annex.

Advocates for detained immigrants said they did not have an opportunity to raise their concerns at public hearings before ICE began using the new site.

“We don’t want another ICE detention center in California, or anywhere else for that matter,” said anti-ICE detention advocate Edwin Carmona-Cruz about the new Central Valley Annex.  

The Central Valley Annex is adjacent to Geo Group’s Golden State Annex, which is holding an average daily population of 565 people.

Until 2020, GEO Group operated a cluster of private prisons in McFarland for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The writing was on the wall for their closure as private prisons because Gov. Gavin Newsom had committed to ending those contracts. 

California Democrats in 2019 tried to stop GEO Group from turning the sites into immigrant detention facilities by passing a law to prohibit that use. 

ICE signed a 15-year contract worth $1.5 billion with GEO for two McFarland sites and one in Bakersfield just weeks before the law went into effect. In 2023, a federal court found the state law unconstitutional, ruling it infringed on federal authority to enforce immigration law. 

In 2020, the McFarland mayor resigned because the city’s planning commission deadlocked on GEO’s proposal to convert two of its sites there into immigration detention facilities. Then-Mayor Manuel Cantu Jr. told the Desert Sun the day after the vote that the small city relies on the approximately $2 million annually that GEO pays in property taxes and utility fees to provide vital municipal services like water, sewer and public safety. 

The private prison company appealed, though, and eventually was able to move forward in 2020 with opening Golden State Annex for its work with ICE. 

GEO told the planning commission in 2020 that opening both the Golden State and Central Valley annexes would bring the town $511,000 annually in mitigation payments, along with well-paying jobs. 

California state law requires a city or county to provide a 180-day notice and hold public hearings before approving or allowing the reuse of a facility for immigration detention.

The city clerk and city manager of McFarland, a small agricultural town with a population of about 15,000, did not immediately respond to phone calls and questions from CalMatters. 

Jason Sweeney, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the facility opened “under an existing intergovernmental services agreement” that “has been in place for several years.” He said the Central Valley Annex began housing detainees within the last two weeks and that the agency would add the new site to its bi-weekly reports.

California’s newest detention centers

Last year, CoreCivic, another private prison operator, opened a 2,560-bed immigrant detention center in California City, in eastern Kern County, on the site of another shuttered state prison. It’s the largest ICE detention center in the state. The company began detaining immigrants there in late August 2025 without acquiring necessary paperwork from California City, contributing to legal and community opposition. 

According to GEO Group’s website, the newly activated Central Valley Annex facility is accredited by the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. It previously housed detainees from the U.S. Marshals Service. 

ICE did not immediately respond to a question about whether the facility is now holding both U.S. Marshal and immigrant detainees. 

The unprecedented growth in people being held in ICE detention centers nationwide has been fueled by an influx of $45 billion delivered through the spending law Trump signed last year that he referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” The Trump administration is aiming to hold more than 100,000 immigrant detainees on any given day as part of his massive deportation campaign. When he took office in 2025, ICE was holding an average of about 40,000 people per day. 

State oversight of conditions inside

Carmona-Cruz, the co-executive director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, said people being sent to Central Valley Annex “are at risk of the same terrible abuses and inhumane conditions that people in the ICE detention center next door have faced for years.” 

For years, detainees at the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex facilities — the others under the same contract as Central Valley Annex — have alleged abuse and dangerous conditions, including medical neglect, being paid only $1 a day for labor, being held in solitary confinement after reporting sexual abuse and inadequate food. 

In response to some of those previous allegations, Chris V. Ferreira, the spokesman for GEO Group, has previously told CalMatters that his company “strongly disagrees with these baseless allegations, which are part of a long-standing, politically motivated, and radical campaign to abolish ICE and end federal immigration detention by attacking the federal government’s immigration facility contractors.” He did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. 

“The people being sent there are our community members, neighbors, family members,” Carmona-Cruz  said. “ICE and GEO Group are incapable of meeting the human needs of the people they detain. ICE detention is not only unjust and unnecessary — it is deadly. Nearly 50 people have died in ICE detention since Trump took office again, and it’s only getting worse.” 

Last year,  the California Attorney General’s Office released a report raising concerns about health care inside ICE facilities. At that time, there were only six detention centers operating in the state. 

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The SBA limited access to its loans to U.S. citizens and nationals only starting in March, and expanded that policy to SBA-backed loans beginning in April. On top of that, any business that’s even partly owned by a permanent legal resident with a green card is no longer eligible for the loans.

California — which has the most small businesses and the largest immigrant population in the nation — could be most affected. SBA loans have been important to immigrant entrepreneurs because they typically are low-interest and available to those without an established credit history. The agency has also backed loans by private funders, providing a government guarantee for people banks may deem riskier. Now, all those loans are off the table for owners and would-be owners of restaurants, bake shops, law practices, medical clinics, taxi medallions, nail salons and more who hold green cards.

Small business owners are responsible for 99% of net new jobs in the state, according to the California Office of the Small Business Advocate. Immigrant entrepreneurs make up 40% of the state’s business community and generated $28.4 billion in income in 2023, according to GO-Biz, the governor’s office of business and economic development.

Small Business Majority, a national business advocacy group, wrote to the SBA in mid-March, urging the federal agency to reconsider the changes. The letter, signed by dozens of state and national groups and chambers of commerce, called the new policies “a misguided approach that ignores critical economic data underscoring the job creating power of the immigrant community.”

The SBA has a limited lending capacity, said Maggie Clemmons, a spokesperson for the agency. “The agency’s rule change will help ensure more American citizens have access to funding previously granted to noncitizens,” she said in an email.

The SBA approved 3,358 loans for small businesses owned partly by a lawful permanent resident in fiscal year 2025, largely during the Biden administration, Clemmons said. That represented 4% of the 85,000 loans approved by the agency. In California, the changes could affect about 220,000 small business owners who hold green cards, said Carolina Martinez, chief executive of CAMEO Network, a national association of organizations that support small businesses.

“The most important thing for us is to really understand that this SBA decision… is really bad for the American economy,” Martinez said.

Pursuing the American Dream

Cristina Foanene, a Romanian immigrant who arrived in the United States 20 years ago, was a green-card holder when she obtained an SBA loan in 2018 that allowed her and her husband to buy a building and expand their glass company, MCS Glass, in Fresno. They now have 30 employees.

“The loan gave us an opportunity to create more jobs, to have an even greater impact in our community,” Foanene said. Their goal is to manufacture more products and create more positions, she added.

She said she doesn’t know where the business would be today without the SBA loans they received over the years. They just signed their third loan last month, Foanene said, their first as American citizens.

She called herself loyal to this country and said she’s sad that others like her may not have the same opportunities to pursue the American Dream by securing SBA loans while “respecting the laws.”

“It literally breaks my heart,” Foanene said. “There are so many good people with good intentions. I feel it’s unfair.”

Other entrepreneurs or independent contractors also lose a possible safety net that SBA loans once provided.

“During the pandemic, these loans were crucial to people’s survival,” said Dung Nguyen, program and organizing director for California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, an organization that advocates for Vietnamese immigrants, many of whom work in the nail-salon industry. The group signed the Small Business Majority’s letter to the SBA.

Nguyen said the nail-salon workers and owners who took out those loans during the pandemic are still paying them back.

‘A new kind of status’

Kenia Zamarripa, spokesperson for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which also signed the letter to the SBA, said this latest policy change is another example of how immigrants are more vulnerable as federal funds for other programs have been taken away. Her group and others are pushing for immigration reform that includes a standardized path to citizenship, she said.

“This is a community that’s doing things the right way, looking for a legal path,” she said. “It’s like you’re punishing them for doing the right thing.”

The SBA changes push green-card holders to “informality,” Zamarripa said. “What’s next? What other resources will be taken away? How else will immigrants continue to be targeted?”

Others echo that concern.

“This dialog is really challenging our concept of what undocumented means,” said Gabriela Alemán, a spokesperson for Mission Asset Fund, a San Francisco organization that supports and lends to small business owners. “These are community members that are now being pushed into a new kind of status.”

Mission Asset Fund’s lending circles — modeled after the Mexican community-based lending practice called tandas — can provide up to $2,500 in loans to small business owners. The group just got its California lenders’ license and will eventually be able to provide larger loans, Alemán said.

But it will be tough for groups like it to fill the gap left by the SBA’s new policies for permanent legal residents who may want to start or grow their businesses.

“There are not any other options at this scale (that the SBA provides),” said Brian Kennedy Jr., entrepreneur ecosystem director at AmPac Business Capital, a Los Angeles-area community development financial institution and SBA partner. “We’re talking about $35,000 up to $30 million.”

What’s next

Many small business owners already use — and may increasingly rely on — community development financial institutions and other lenders whose mission is to help people with limited options, credit histories and savings. They could also turn to the state for help. State-funded options include a small business loan guarantee program through its IBank, and programs through the treasurer’s office that reduces risks to lenders by pledging state funds as collateral, or contributing to loan-loss reserves.

Microenterprise Collaborative of Inland Southern California works with lenders, technical assistance providers and community partners to help small business owners in Inland Southern California.

Pamela Deans, the group’s executive director, said the SBA’s policy change will alter how the organization refers entrepreneurs to sources of capital. Rather than pointing them to “a relatively straightforward” SBA process, she said the group will have to inform them of a more fragmented set of options and warn them about predatory lending.

“Many of these would‑be owners will have a much harder time piecing together enough safe, affordable capital to lease a space, buy equipment or cover early working capital — so the taquería, the child care business, the trucking startup may never open in the first place,” Deans said.

Bianca Blomquist, California director for Small Business Majority, also is concerned about small business owners turning to unscrupulous lenders. She said her group found out recently that an owner of a child care business in downtown L.A. took out a $10,000 loan at what she thought was 13% interest. It was actually closer to 250%.

Other advocates are hoping philanthropy and impact investors will step up and make more capital available to small lenders.

“Women, entrepreneurs, immigrants and communities of color always have had to think outside the typical paths,” said Leticia Landa, executive director of La Cocina, a small business incubator in San Francisco. “I do hope, especially in California, that we’re going to come up with something.”

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Six Democrats and one Republican on the stage in Newsom’s hometown of San Francisco took direct aim at the governor’s record on homelessness, efforts to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and opposition to an anti-crime ballot measure that Californians overwhelmingly passed two years ago.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who unsuccessfully ran against Newsom for governor in 2018, pointed to state spending on homelessness as an example of ineptitude.

“We spent $24 billion at the state, along with billions more from the counties and the cities throughout the state, and homelessness went on,” he said. “We cannot be afraid to look in the mirror.”

The televised debate revealed the schism between the moderate and progressive Democrats hoping to replace Newsom, as well as efforts by Steve Hilton, the sole Republican who took part, to coalesce the conservative vote.

Hilton, a former Fox New commentator and British political strategist, called on his top GOP rival, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, to drop out of the race.

“My Republican colleague Chad Bianco is not here tonight to face these Democrats or his record in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter riots,” Hilton said at the event, which was co-sponsored by the nonprofit Black Action Alliance, which was founded to give Black voters a greater voice in the Bay Area.

Bianco “took a knee when told to by BLM, now he says he was praying,” Hilton said. “Chad Bianco has got more baggage than LAX.”

Bianco was invited to the debate but said he was unable to attend because of a scheduling conflict. His campaign did not respond to requests for comment about Hilton’s attacks.

The, at times, feisty debate came amid a gubernatorial race that thus far has lacked sizzle or a candidate on either side of the aisle who has excited Californians. Public opinion polls show that most voters remain undecided.

Seven of the dozen prominent candidates running to replace Newsom participated in the gathering at the Ruth Williams Opera House in front of a live audience of about 200 people. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) was scheduled to participate but canceled, citing the need to go back to Washington, D.C., for congressional votes. Former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) also did not attend the debate.

The two-hour clash, at times plagued by audio issues, was hosted by two local Fox News affiliates and moderated by KTVU political reporter Greg Lee and anchor André Senior, as well as KTTV’s Marla Tellez.

Five takeaways from the debate:

Making California affordable again

When grilled about how they planned to tackle the high cost of living in the state — gas prices, rent, utility bills and other day-to-day financial challenges — most of the candidates prefaced their answers by talking about growing up in struggling households, often with immigrant parents who worked blue-collar jobs.

Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said he would stabilize rents and freeze utility and home insurance costs “until we find out why they’re increasing.” California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said he would raise taxes on billionaires and create tax credits to help families afford the high cost of living.

Villaraigosa and Hilton said they would lower gas prices by cutting regulations on California’s oil refineries.

Hilton blamed the state’s high cost of living squarely on Democratic policies. “They’ve been in power for 16 years,” he said. “Who else is there to blame?”

Billionaire hedge fund founder turned climate activist Tom Steyer said he favors rent control. Steyer and former state Controller Betty Yee said they would prioritize zoning and permitting reform to build more housing, particularly near public transit. Both Steyer, a progressive, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate, spoke about using new technology such as pre-fabricated homes to build more affordable housing.

Protecting immigrants

In the wake of the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration raids that started in Los Angeles in June and have spread across the nation — recently resulting in the shooting deaths of two people by federal agents in Minneapolis — the Democrats on stage unanimously voiced support for immigrants who live in California. Some pledged that, if elected, they would use the governor’s office to aggressively push back on President Trump’s immigration policies.

“We’ve got to say no to ICE, and we’ve got to take on Trump wherever he raises his ugly head,” Villaraigosa said.

Steyer, whose hedge fund invested in a company that runs migrant detention centers on the U.S.-Mexico border, and Thurmond both said they support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Thurmond and Mahan said they support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Politicians politicking

Amid the debate’s dodging, weaving, yammering and spicy back-and-forth, there were a few moments when the candidates rose above the din.

Villaraigosa, the former two-term mayor of Los Angeles and a former speaker of the California Assembly, insisted that the moderators call him “Antonio” instead of Mayor Villaraigosa.

“It’s my name, everybody. I’m just a regular guy,” he said, prompting a laugh.

Mahan, on the other hand, tried mightily to portray himself as being above the dirty business of politics.

“The truth is that our politics has been oversimplified,” he said. “It’s become this blood sport between populists on both sides, and you deserve real answers, not the easy answers.”

Yee, who has been running on her background as controller and a member of the California Board of Equalization, cast herself as the financial savior the state needs in trying economic times of budget deficits and federal cuts.

“We have not been accountable or transparent with our dollars for a long time,” she said. “Why are we right now and [in successive] years spending more than we’re bringing in? This is where we are. So accountability has to be a tone set from the top.”

The rich guy and the new guy

Steyer, who paints himself as a repentant billionaire devoted to giving away his riches to make California a better place for all, did not directly answer a question about his position on a controversial proposed ballot measure for a new tax on billionaires to fund healthcare. But he said he supported increasing taxes on the wealthy and boasted of having the political backing of bus drivers, nurses and cafeteria workers because he was the rich guy willing to “take on the billionaires for working families.”

Mahan, the latest major candidate to enter the race, wasn’t impressed.

“Tom, I’ve got about 3 billion reasons not to trust your answer on that,” he said, an apparent reference to Steyer’s net worth.

Although he supports closing tax loopholes for the wealthy, Mahan said he opposes the billionaire tax because “it will send good, high-paying jobs out of our state, and hard-working families, in the long run, will all pay more taxes for it.”

Money also spoke Tuesday

Although the battle over campaign fundraising didn’t overtly arise during Tuesday’s debate aside from Mahan’s comment about Steyer, it still was getting a lot of attention. Campaign fundraising disclosures became public Monday and Tuesday.

Unsurprisingly, Steyer led the pack with $28.9 million in contributions in 2025, nearly all of it donations that the billionaire spent on his campaign. Other top fundraisers were Porter, who raised $6.1 million; Hilton, who collected $5.7 million; Becerra, who banked $5.2 million; Bianco, who received $3.7 million in contributions; Swalwell’s $3.1 million since entering the race late last year; and Villaraigosa’s $3.2 million, according to documents filed with the California secretary of state’s office.

Money raised and spent by gubernatorial candidates

Bar chart of money raised and spent by the crowded 2026 California gubernatorial race. In 2025, Tom Steyer raised $28.9 million (including loans from himself) but has already spent $27.4 million. Katie Porter, has raised the second most, at $6.1 million

Mahan, who recently entered the race, wasn’t required to file a campaign fundraising disclosure, though he is expected to have notable support from wealthy Silicon Valley tech honchos. Former state Controller Betty Yee and state schools chief Tony Thurmond were among the candidates who raised the least, which spurs questions about their viability in a state of more than 23 million registered voters with some of the most expensive media markets in the nation.

Yee defended her candidacy by pointing to her experience.

“All the polls show that this race is wide open. You know, I think voters have had enough. I’ve been around the state. I’ve spoken to thousands of them,” she said. “Enough of the lies, the broken campaign promises, billionaires trying to run the world. You know, look, I’m the adult in the room. No gimmicks, no nonsense, straight shooter, the woman who gets things done. And we certainly can’t afford a leader who thinks grandstanding is actually governing.”

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Since Tuesday, Jan. 27, student-led walkouts to rally against Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity were reported in cities including Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana and Ontario.

About 200 students from Poly High School in Riverside walked out of classes Thursday, Jan. 29. Students were seen moving along Central and Victoria avenues outside the campus, holding signs and collectively chanting “ICE out.”

“Stop pretending your racism is patriotism,” one student’s sign read.

Riverside Unified School District spokesperson Andrew Shortall said students returned to class shortly after 11 a.m.

While students take to the streets to voice their opinions, backers of Trump’s immigration policy say the deportations are needed to remove violent criminals who pose a threat to others and to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.

In Rancho Cucamonga, videos posted to TikTok showed students from Etiwanda, Alta Loma and Rancho Cucamonga high schools protesting on the corner of Foothill and Day Creek boulevards on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Some waved flags, another had a cardboard cutout of Trump.

“Three rival schools protested together,” the TikTok post said.

More protests are planned for Friday, Jan. 30, during a “nationwide shutdown” urging activists not to show up for classes, work, and calling for an end to funding immigration enforcement. Protests have erupted in Minneapolis and nationwide, with many calling for for an end to ICE tactics after the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.

An action guide put together by Somali and Black student organizations in Minneapolis encourages students to walk out Friday “to protest ICE terror in our communities.”

“While Congress is debating giving ICE even more money, it’s time to take our movement to the next level. ICE has kidnapped our neighbors and classmates; they do not make our communities more safe. We demand ICE out for good,” the guide states. “Students are always at the heart of movements for justice across the world.”

A letter from officials in the Coachella Valley Unified School District encourages parents to speak with their children “about making thoughtful and responsible choices during the school day.”

It was unclear if other Inland school districts had sent similar messages to parents and community members.

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The demonstrations were part of a massive, nationwide “No Kings Day of Defiance” protest targeting the Trump administration that capped a week of unrest in the region stemming from immigration raids and coincided with a military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday.

Saturday morning, cowbells rang out from a busy corner in downtown Redlands, the site of one of the earliest demonstrations planned for the day.

Protesters were lined up along Orange Street and Redlands Boulevard by 9:50 a.m. Before the crowd dispersed around noon, it had swelled to more than 1,000 protesters, some waving American flags while others carried signs with sharp words directed at the president.

“I’m here because we can’t allow this to happen … one man cannot dictate,” protester Tim Clark, a 74-year-old Army veteran, said as he carried a sign reading “No bogus bone spurs here. Proud veteran against Trump.”

“We have to stand up for what’s right,” Clark said. “We have the Constitution, we have the rule of law … not what one king, Donald Trump, wants to do.”

Seventeen protests were planned for the Inland Empire on Flag Day, and more than two dozen more were planned throughout Southern California.

Locally, protests were scheduled in Beaumont, Big Bear Lake, Cathedral City, Claremont, Corona, Fontana, Hemet, Idyllwild, Joshua Tree, Menifee, Palm Springs, Rancho Cucamonga, Rancho Mirage, Redlands, Riverside, Temecula and Victorville.

Demonstrations held early Saturday in the Inland Empire were largely peaceful, with little to no visible police presence. Protests were planned into the evening in some cities.

Police in helicopters circled sections of Sierra Avenue in Fontana, where more than 1,000 protesters marched midday as the temperatures climbed into the high 80s. Police announced they “respect and support” everyone’s right to protest, but asked protesters to get out of the street.

Most complied, continuing their march as some played mariachi music on boom boxes and motorists drove by honking their horns support. Signs carried by protesters made clear their support for the Latino community and their objection to recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Priscilla Gonzalez, 23, from Corona, joined the Fontana protest with friends Fatima Cabrera, 24, of Eastvale, and Ariel Sanchez, 25, of Hesperia, carrying a sign reading “California melts ICE.”

“We are not afraid to stand behind what we believe in,” Gonzalez said, “and we believe that the administration is abusing its power and it’s forgetting that we have a Constitution, not a king.”

In Claremont, more than 1,000 protesters gathered at Foothill and Indian Hill boulevards in the early afternoon Saturday.

Upland resident Miguel Castellanos said he joined the Claremont protest in support of his mother, who worked on farms as a child, and his father, a Vietnam veteran.

“I am allowed to do this, and I want to do this,” he said. “This is human power.”

More than 1,500 “No Kings” demonstrations were planned across the U.S. after progressive organizations Indivisible, 50501 and a coalition of like-minded groups announced them on May 6.

The protests coincided with a military parade the Trump administration organized in Washington, D.C., to mark the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. June 14 is also Trump’s 79th birthday.

There were no “No Kings” protests scheduled for Washington, D.C. on Saturday. Organizers had said they wanted to shift the focus of the world away from Trump and to the rest of the United States.

The “No Kings” protests bookend a week of rising tensions in the country. Protesters have taken to the streets in communities across Southern California and beyond in response to federal immigration efforts in the Los Angeles area that started June 6 and were followed by Trump deploying the California National Guard — over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom — and the U.S. Marines to the city to support those efforts.

In Riverside, several thousand protesters began gathering at 5 p.m. at Market Street and University Avenue. A woman blew bubbles as a way to spread joy, and two men riding horses held a U.S. Marine Corps flag as car horns blared in support of protesters. The group marched on Market while chanting “The people united will not be divided.”

Protesters made their way to the Riverside Historic Courthouse, their chants keeping time with a drumline before Dez Manuel, a United Automobile Workers member, called out to the crowd.

“We got a warmonger as a president who said the criminals are our neighbors, the criminals are our mothers,” Manuel said, calling out Trump for the detainment and deportation of women and children.

“When we fight back they tell us that we are criminals. Trump is trying to send in the National Guard to intimidate our people,” Manuel said.

“Are we afraid?” he asked. The crowd shouted “no.”

Elsewhere, protests in Los Angeles, Long Beach and other cities drew massive crowds.

By 9:50 a.m. at Grand Park in LA, just before the protest’s scheduled start time, the crowd had grown significantly — thousands filled the park and spilled out onto both sides of North Spring Street.

Around 4 p.m., the rally – with an estimated 200,000 protesters – switched from peaceful to chaotic, as some people reportedly threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at police. Officers issued a dispersal order and unleashed flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the crowd.

Confusion broke out as police on horseback pushed people away from an area near the 101 Freeway and traffic was diverted on city streets. Protesters ran past businesses that had been boarded up ahead of the demonstration. Reporting from a KTLA helicopter showed people were trying to rush away from the rubber bullets and horses but did not know exactly where to go.

Up until that point, the downtown LA rally had been peaceful. The 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for a one-square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles after a week of protests against federal immigration raids remained in place Saturday night, officials previously announced.

Among the demonstrators in LA was Alicia Bleier, a retired business owner from Silver Lake, who said she joined out of “outrage at how the federal government is overstepping their bounds and politicizing what shouldn’t be politicized.”

“This is not who we are,” said Bleier, who held a sign reading, “Immigrants are the backbone of American exceptionalism.” She added, “Everyone here — unless they’re American Indian — is an immigrant. Immigrants built this country.”

A planned protest in Huntington Beach drew a heavy presence of Trump supporters Saturday morning, an hour before the scheduled noon start time.

By 11 a.m., dozens of vehicles flying Trump 2024 flags had lined the streets near the pier, with supporters waving flags, honking horns and walking down Main and PCH. The counter-presence appeared to outnumber early arrivals for the protest.

Trump supporters shouted “USA! USA! USA!” The smaller group of protesters shot back with “No kings!”

By 1 p.m., the line of “No Kings” protesters – thousands of them, by some estimates – stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions from the intersection of Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Back in Redlands, recent University of Redlands graduate Vivian Reukauf wore a T-shirt saying “The only dangerous minority is the rich” and carried a sign reading “Nazis, I hate those guys.”

“I’m feeling very safe and feeling like I’m protecting our democracy,” she said from a shaded sidewalk as temperatures began to climb.

Andres Montalvo, 29, who traveled from San Bernardino to Redlands to join the protest, draped an American flag over his shoulders and carried a sign reading “No hate in our state.”

“I’m here standing up not only for my parents but for a long of people that come here to this country looking for a better opportunity,” said Montalvo, whose parents immigrated from Mexico.

“I’m fortunate enough to be an American. A lot of people don’t have that,” Montalvo added. “But we’re all human beings and we need to get treated like a decent person. I know there’s people that are here that aren’t doing the right thing but you can’t use some people’s actions and justify (taking action against) everyone else.”

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Related video above: Federal judge hears arguments on deportation flights

Nelson Gonzalez, 59, and his wife Gladys Gonzalez, 55, of Orange County, originally entered the states near San Ysidro before ultimately settling in Laguna Niguel and starting their family.  

While the couple tried numerous legal avenues to remain in the country over the years, including appeals to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Board of Immigration Appeals, a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Orange County Register that the Gonzalezes had “exhausted all legal options to remain in the U.S. between March 2000 and August 2021,” and were ultimately in violation of immigration law.  

Their three daughters, Gabby, 23, Jessica, 33, and Stephanie, 27, all U.S. citizens, told KTLA that they were devastated when they learned their parents had been detained on Feb. 21 during a regular check-in with U.S. immigration officials.  

“They were put into handcuffs by their wrists and ankles and treated as criminals before getting to these detention centers,” Stephanie Gonzalez told KTLA. “All they said is they extended their stay, even though every year they’ve had permission to be here and they’re law-abiding citizens who show up and are doing their duty to check in with immigration and say, ‘Hey I’m here. I’m not hiding or doing anything wrong.’ Then they just arrested them like that.” 

Gladys and Nelson, neither of whom have a criminal record, were originally held at the Adelanto Detention Center in San Bernardino County before being transferred to a facility in Arizona and later Louisiana.  

Stephanie told The Register that though her parents have been traumatized by everything that’s transpired, they are grateful to no longer be in detention centers and have made contact with family in Colombia who are helping them start a new life.  

The two younger sisters, Gabby and Stephanie, are currently living with Jessica and her husband in Newport Beach. They all plan to visit their parents within the coming weeks.  

Family members also acknowledged they’re one of many who have been affected by President Donald Trump and his administration’s goal of ramping up arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants throughout the U.S.  

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With the Trump administration promising the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, more than 200 people marched through downtown Ontario on Saturday morning in support of the Inland Empire’s immigrant community.

The energetic crowd waved American and Mexican flags, banged drums and unleashed noisemakers as they paraded along the sidewalks. They chanted, “We are not leaving,” and the United Farm Workers’ motto, “Sí, se puede.” Demonstrators erupted into cheers when vehicles along Euclid Avenue honked in support.

The protest — promoted on social media as a “mass mobilization against mass deportation” — was led by the San Bernardino-based Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, which is comprised of more than 35 organizations serving the immigrant community in the Inland Empire.

The region is home to a sizable immigrant population. According to a 2018 report from UC Riverside’s Center for Social Innovation, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the California Immigrant Policy Center, one in five Inland Empire residents was an immigrant, with nearly 1 million immigrants across Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

San Bernardino County also is home to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, one of California’s largest immigration detention centers, which is managed by the private prison corporation GEO Group. A coalition of immigrant rights groups has advocated for the facility’s closure for years, citing health, safety and human rights concerns.

Addressing the crowd before beginning the march, Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, framed the administration’s rhetoric as an attempt to sow fear and panic among the immigrant community; a ploy to make people cower in the shadows or self-deport.

“The way we fight back is by coming out to the streets,” Hernandez said. “We’re leaving fear behind and pushing forward with our fight for immigrant rights.”

“Sin papeles, sin miedo,” he cried out, leading attendees in a boisterous chant. “Undocumented, unafraid.”

Confronting that fear — and speaking out for those feeling attacked and afraid to protest — was on the minds of many protesters.

Andy Garibay came to the country as a baby and now has work authorization and deportation protection through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. A mother of two, she lives in Rialto and works in payroll administration.

She said the Trump administration’s threats have her and her family on edge. Her family group chat seems to be constantly pinging with possible sightings of immigration officials near the warehouses where many relatives work, she said.

“Why should it be like this?” said Garibay, who held signs reading, “One Love,” and had a Mexican flag wrapped around her hair.

Deanna Pennino, of Ontario, is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant. He taught her and her siblings to work hard and be proud Americans, while never forgetting their roots, she said.

Pennino, a respiratory therapist at a local hospital, said several colleagues have stopped coming to work, afraid immigration authorities could show up at any moment. Trump on his first day in office rescinded a Biden-era policy that protected certain sensitive locations, including churches, schools and hospitals, from immigration enforcement.

Pennino also fought against Proposition 187, a 1994 ballot initiative that sought to bar immigrants lacking documentation from receiving any public benefits, including healthcare, education and social services. That experience, she said, proved to her that “we can fight and make a difference.”

During Saturday’s march, she carried a sign reading “Deport Elon,” a reference to Elon Musk, a South African immigrant who is leading a controversial effort to weed out alleged fraud, waste and abuse from the federal government.

Trump initially focused his rhetoric on tracking down immigrants lacking authorization and who have been accused of violent crimes. His administration now says it considers all immigrants in the U.S. without legal authorization to be criminals, because they have violated immigration laws.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has already conducted well-publicized operations in Chicago and New York, among other places. The pledge of more enforcement actions has rattled immigrant communities throughout California and across the country and spurred a groundswell of activism.

Last weekend, rumors that the federal government was planning a massive immigration enforcement sweep in Los Angeles County put many people on high alert. At that time, ICE officials did not say whether any special operations had taken place and did not release daily arrest figures. However, it appeared any such operation had not been anywhere near as widespread as many had predicted.

In early January, at the tail end of the Biden administration, Border Patrol agents conducted a multi-day raid in rural parts of Kern County, resulting in the detention and deportation of scores of laborers lacking documentation.

This week, ACLU attorneys representing the United Farm Workers and five Kern County residents sued the head of the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol officials, alleging the raid amounted to a “fishing expedition” that indiscriminately targeted people of color who appeared to be farmworkers or day laborers.

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