Education advocates are launching a multi-year program to develop a game and to teach the Denaakk’e language in schools. That and another language teaching apps come at a time when almost all federal funding for language revitalization is eliminated. We’ll also talk with a man about his personal journey learning the Cherokee language, an undertaking that inspired him to learn more about his tribal language’s history and importance in maintaining culture.
Claudia Boyd-Barrett for KFF Health News, Suzanne Potter
CA Immigrants Weigh Health Coverage Against Deportation Risk
For months, Maria, 55, a caregiver to older adults in California’s Orange County, has been trying not to smile.
If she opens her mouth too wide, she worries, people will see her chipped, plaque-covered front teeth. An immigrant without legal status, Maria doesn’t have health or dental insurance. When her teeth start to throb, she swallows pain pills. Last summer, a dentist said it would cost $2,400 to fix her teeth. That’s more than she can afford.
“It’s so expensive,” said Maria, who often works 12-hour days lifting clients in and out of bed and helping them with hygiene, medication management, and housework. “I need money for my kids, for my rent, for transport, for food. Sometimes, there’s nothing left for me.”
KFF Health News connected with Maria through an advocacy organization for immigrant workers. Fearing deportation, she asked that only her first name be used.
Maria is among what the federal government estimates are 2.6 million immigrants living in California without legal status. The state had gradually sought to bring these immigrants into its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. But now, facing a state enrollment freeze, low-income California residents in the U.S. without legal permission — along with the providers and community workers that help them — are anxiously weighing the benefits of pushing forward with Medi-Cal applications against the risks of discovery and deportation by the federal government.
Seeking to close a projected $12 billion budget deficit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a balanced state budget on June 27 that will end new Medi-Cal enrollment in January 2026 for those over 19 without legal status.
Meanwhile, federal immigration raids — which appear to have targeted at least one health clinic in the state — are already making some people afraid to seek medical care, say immigrant advocates and health providers. And the recent news that Trump administration officials are sharing Medicaid enrollee data, including immigration status, with deportation authorities is expected to further erode trust in the program.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the agency, which oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, had the legal authority to share the data to address “unprecedented systemic neglect under the Biden-Harris administration that allowed illegal immigrants to exploit Medicaid while millions of Americans struggle to access care, particularly in states like California.”
Further complicating matters, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold funds from states that provide health coverage to people without legal status. Currently, about 1.6 million people in the country without authorization are enrolled in Medi-Cal.
In 2016, California began opening Medi-Cal to low-income people lacking legal status, starting with children, then gradually expanded it to young people, older adults, and — in January 2024 — those ages 26 to 49. The state Department of Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal, partnered with community health clinics to help get eligible people enrolled.
It’s too early to tell what impact the latest state and federal developments are having on enrollment numbers, since data is available only through March. But many health care providers and advocates said they expect a chilling effect on immigrant enrollment.
Seciah Aquino is executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, which supports community health workers — also called promotores — who help spread awareness about Medi-Cal’s expansion to adults lacking legal status. Just over half of public health insurance recipients in California are Latino, compared with just 30% of Medicaid enrollees nationwide.
Aquino said her coalition will tell promotores to disclose data-sharing risks so community members can make informed decisions.
“They take it very personally that advice that they provided to a fellow community member could now hurt them,” Aquino said.
Newsom condemned the data sharing, calling the move “legally dubious,” while U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, have demanded that the Department of Homeland Security destroy any data shared.
California’s Department of Health Care Services announced June 13 that it is seeking more information from the federal government. The agency said it submitted monthly reports to CMS with demographic and eligibility information, including name and address, as required by law.
Medicaid enrollee data from Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., was also reportedly shared with DHS. Jamie Munks, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the state’s Medicaid agency, said the department was “deeply concerned” by the news and that the data was regularly passed along to CMS with the understanding that it was protected.
In Sacramento, Democratic lawmakers found themselves in the uncomfortable position of rolling back health benefits for low-income residents with unsatisfactory immigration status, including people without legal status, people who’ve held green cards for under five years, and some others who are in the process of applying for legal status or have statuses meant to protect them from deportation. In addition to the Medi-Cal enrollment freeze for immigrants 19 and older in the country without authorization, all enrolled residents with unsatisfactory immigration status from 19 to 59 years old will be charged $30 monthly premiums starting in July 2027.
“What I’m hearing on the ground is folks are telling me they’re going to have a really hard time making these premium payments,” said Carlos Alarcon, health and public benefits policy analyst with the California Immigrant Policy Center, an advocacy group. “The reality is most people already have limited budgets.”
The legislature rejected a proposal from the governor to bar immigrants with unsatisfactory immigration status from receiving long-term nursing home and in-home care through Medi-Cal but went along with eliminating dental benefits starting in July 2026.
Health care providers said that without Medi-Cal coverage, many immigrants will be forced to seek emergency care, which is more expensive for taxpayers than preventive and primary-level care. Sepideh Taghvaei, chief dental officer at Santa Cruz County’s Dientes Community Dental Care, saw this play out in 2009 when the state cut adult Medi-Cal dental benefits. Patients came in with swollen faces and excruciating pain, with conditions so advanced that they required hospital treatment. “It’s not cost-effective,” she said.
State Sen. Roger Niello, a Republican who serves as vice chair of the Senate budget committee, said he believes California shouldn’t be funding Medi-Cal for people who lack legal status, particularly given the state’s fiscal challenges. He also said he worries that coverage of people in the country without authorization could encourage others to move to California.
“If we maintain that expense to the noncitizen,” he said, “we’re going to have to cut someplace else, and that’s undoubtedly going to affect citizens.”
Californians, too, are going through a change of heart. In a May poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, 58% of adults opposed the benefit.
For Maria, shifting health care policies have left her feeling paralyzed. Since she arrived here five years ago, the caregiver’s focus has been on earning money to support her three children, whom she left with her parents in her home country, she said.
Maria didn’t learn she might be eligible for Medi-Cal until earlier this year and hadn’t yet found time to complete the paperwork. After a friend told her that the state could freeze enrollment in January, she began rushing to finish the sign-up process. But then she learned that Medi-Cal data had been shared with immigration authorities.
“Disappointed and scared” was how she described her reaction.
Suddenly, she said, enrolling in Medi-Cal doesn’t seem like a good idea.
More than 400 teen artists will gather this Saturday in Southern California to learn about equity in arts education. The 3rd annual Arts Advocacy Day kicks off the California State Summer School for the Arts. Speakers and workshops will tackle issues like the troubled rollout of Proposition 28, which was supposed to fund new arts classes but has been diverted by some school districts.
Caitlin Lainoff, senior manager of youth engagement at the nonprofit Create CA which sponsors the event, said the event is important for its informational value.
“We want to make sure that students leave knowing that they are guaranteed money for the arts and that they can connect with their administrators to see how that money is spent and can reach out to their legislators at any point,” she explained.
The program takes place at the California Institute of the Arts in Santa Clarita. The goal is to inspire the state’s next entrepreneurs, artists and culture makers to fight for education funding, during a particularly challenging time. The feds just froze almost $7 billion in education grants nationwide to see if they align with Trump administration priorities. The money was supposed to be distributed on July first, leaving districts scrambling.
Lainoff added that the programs such as theater, music and fine art are often the first to go when budgets are tight.
“The potential impact on arts programs is that instead of Prop 28 going to additional arts classes, they will be plugged in to previous arts classes or cut completely for other uses,” she continued.
In May, the Trump administration proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and has already canceled grants to hundreds of arts organizations.
Disclosure by Public News Service: Create CA contributes to our fund for reporting on Arts & Culture, Budget Policy & Priorities, Education, Youth Issues.
Texas flooding death toll climbs to 119 as search for more people continues; Poll: Most Americans say Trump has gone ‘too far’ on immigration; Consumer protection agency takes a big hit under Trump tax law; New England health clinics face closure, ask states to fill funding gap.
NOAA nominee says he supports cutting the agency’s budget. Many question why Ukraine’s weapons aid was paused. And farmers worry how the budget megabill will impact this year’s Farm Bill.
Friday, July 11, 2025–WHAT WE’VE LEARNED IN THE 35 YEARS SINCE THE MOHAWK RESISTANCE AT OKA
Photo: Mohawk warriors during the resistance at Oka, Quebec (Photo: by Injuneering via Flickr/CC public domain)
The 78-day armed standoff just outside of Montreal in 1990 is credited with clearing a path for reconciliation between Indigenous tribes and the Canadian federal government. The country can count a number of initiatives, government resolutions, and task forces that sprouted from the violence 35 years ago. But many of Indigenous people connected to the direct action say any progress since then is slow and insufficient. We’ll recount the conflict sparked by a town’s plan to build a golf course and condominiums on sacred Mohawk land and assess the state of awareness for Indigenous issues since then.
Also, what is the most effective response when public figures make comments that go well past acceptable boundaries? How are they held accountable? We’ll reflect on a social media post by conservative commentator Ann Coulter that prompted rebuke by hundreds of Native American leaders and individuals.
_________________ GUESTS ___________________
Russ Diabo (Kahnawake Mohawk), policy analyst
Waneek Horn-Miller (Mohawk), Olympian and veteran of the Oka standoff
Levi Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi), publisher and editor of Native News Online and Tribal Business News
Anton Treuer (Leech Lake Ojibwe descendant), professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University
A Daily Newsletter of Renaissance Thinking about Progressive Politics, Economics, Science, and the Political News Issues of Our Day
Thom Hartmann has been the nation’s #1 progressive talk show host for over a decade.
Talkers Magazine ranks Thom as the #1 progressive talk show host in America, with a cumulative audience of 7 million (excluding the TV audience). For 9 years he also hosted an evening TV program that was first carried by Free Speech TV and later picked up by RT TV out of Washington, DC. He separated from RT in 2017.
He is also a four-time Project Censored-award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of over 30 books in print. He invented the “hunters in a farmer’s world” reframe for ADHD and wrote 5 books on the subject.
In the early 1970s, he founded and ran The Michigan Healing Arts Center, and in the years since then has started 2 advertising agencies (Ter Graphics in the 70s, and Chandler, MacDonald dba The Newsletter Factor in the 80s), a travel agency (International Wholesale Travel, sold in 1986), and a community for abused children in New Hampshire, as well as starting relief programs on all 5 continents over the years while working with the Salem International organization. (His autobiography, documenting mostly his work with Salem, is titled The Prophet’s Way, a reference to his mentor Gottfried Mueller, and available in bookstores nationwide.)
STOP & TALK with Grant Oliphant and Crystal Page Fri 8am
Thoughtful conversations and a good way to start the day! STOP & TALK dives deep into the themes of purpose and opportunity, guided by the insights of leaders in the arts and culture, health, philanthropy, finance, and innovation fields. Together, we celebrated local achievements and envisioned what’s possible in San Diego County.
THE PALESTINE QUESTION with guest PROFESSOR GARY FIELDS
For the past 23 years, Gary Fields has been a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego and is now a Professor in the Graduate Division at UCSD. By training, he is a historical geographer and his research focuses comparatively on case studies of conflicts over land with an emphasis on the case of Palestine. Fields is the author of Enclosure, Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror and numerous articles on Palestine. He is also an “engaged scholar” seeking to connect his academic work to real world struggles and in this role has contributed articles for venues such as Jadaliyya, Monthly Review, and Counterpunch. He is currently finishing a new book entitled, Imprisoned: Voices and Images from Confinement Landscapes in Palestine.
CA School Budgets in Disarray After Trump Freezes Federal Funding
Suzanne Potter–CA school budgets are in limbo as almost 7 billion dollars in expected federal education funding is being withheld to determine if grant programs support administration priorities.
Panic has set in at school districts across the Golden State as the Trump administration continues to withhold federal funds. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond says California school districts stand to immediately lose close to one billion dollars. Dr. Luis Valentino is a retired superintendent of Coachella Valley Unified School District and host of the podcast “District Leader: Transforming Education.” He says unless this is resolved quickly, schools will be forced to cut back or even eliminate programs.
“Without timely allocation tables from the United States Department of Education, states will be left uncertain, making it challenging to prepare for the 2025-26 school year. School districts, especially those in high-poverty and rural areas, will be left scrambling.”
Last week the Department of Education notified schools across the country that five grant programs are now “under review” to determine if they align with administration priorities. In a statement to Real Clear Politics, the Office of Management and Budget said “initial findings have shown that many of these grant programs have been grossly misused to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda.” The grants in question fund summer learning, teacher professional development and after-school programs. They also fund English language classes and support for children of migrants.
The grants are usually distributed on July 1st. Valentino warns there will be far-reaching consequences if the congressionally-approved funding isn’t restored.
“Migrant children, English language learners, and those in low-performing schools stand to lose vital support that helps them meet academic benchmarks. This decision will only exacerbate existing educational inequities across each state.”
Programs already underway this summer are now in limbo. In a statement, the head of the Boys and Girls Clubs said that without the promised funding, more than 900 sites nationwide serving 220-thousand kids could be forced to shut their doors, taking almost 6-thousand jobs with them.
June 27, 2025 (San Diego’s East County) – East County Magazine editor Miriam Raftery won two awards from Society for Professional Journalists in the San Diego SPJ Journalism competition. The honors bring ECM’s total awards to 149 since our founding in 2008.
In the series category for daily reporting and writing, Raftery took third place for her series on the Water Conservation Garden’s growing pains. The series chronicled the Garden’s financial struggles, brief closure, and reopening after operations were taken over by the Garden’s joint powers authority. View the series: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
Raftery also won third places in the opinion/editorial category for her editorial published last July 4 , titled As we celebrate Independence Day, our democracy is at risk. Several of the threats to our democratic system of government that she warned of have since come to pass via authoritarian actions rolled out by the Trump administration following the blueprint outlined in Project 2025.
