Trump’s immigration crackdown turned life upside down in California in 2025 – CalMatters

In 2025, California became the first line of federal guidance for more militarized immigration enforcement.

The raids on California’s streets and the lawsuits that followed helped rewrite the ground rules for how agents could operate. What started quickly as pre-dawn operations on the farms of the Golden State expanded into a broader national strategy: surprise workplace and neighborhood cleanups and roving patrols miles from the border.

CalMatters reporters across California documented how a tactic first seen in Kern Countysuch as warrantless traffic stops and heavy reliance on appearance-based profiling spread across the country and then across the country. The US Supreme Court has supported these methods.

At the start of Trump’s second administration, the federal government sent Marines to the borderreferring to a crisis. Those troops have since quietly gone home.

Hundreds of National Guard troops were deployed in Los Angeles following civil unrest over immigration detentions. President Donald Trump has threatened to send forces to the Bay Area, then backed away. State officials objected, while federal leaders characterized the moves as necessary. The standoff deepened long-standing tensions between California and the White House over the state’s asylum policy and federal authority.

All this fell most heavily on families with deep roots in California. CalMatters found that deportations are increasingly reaching people who have been residents for decades, children of U.S. citizens, steady jobs and even those who follow legal paths. ICE detains people for green card interviews and routine checks. The changes destabilized school systems, the agricultural economy, and health care.

Federal lawsuit against deaf asylum seekers prolonged detention revealed gaps in medical care and accommodation for people with disabilities in immigration centers. Under Trump, asylum seekers with pending applications lost protection from arrest. A new system is emerging where people who try to follow the rules are easier targets than those who avoid them. The detention centers have drawn attention from local authorities stepped back from carrying out health and safety inspections, while advocates report deteriorating conditions inside.

A quieter but equally consistent trend has emerged: The the immigrant population declined. Love them or hate them, Trump’s immigration policies were achieving the administration’s goals. Pew Research found that the national immigrant population shrank by about 1.4 million people in the first half of 2025, the first decline in half a century. Economists warned about slower growth. State leaders weighed the long-term impacts on the workforce, schools and social service systems.

Performance increased more data driven. Drone surveillance has expanded into urban areas, and advocates have warned of new uses of artificial intelligence to identify deportation targets and analyze the digital histories of asylum and visa applicants.

Outlook for 2026: California expects further domestic enforcement, additional legal battles over asylum laws, funding and renewed attempts to expand detention capacity. School districts and employers are bracing for more mass takedowns as lawmakers consider new measures to protect privacy.