By JAIMIE DING, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fast-growing brush fire has forced thousands of people to evacuate in a mountainous area north of Los Angeles.

The Canyon Fire ignited Thursday afternoon and grew to more than 7.6 square miles by 11 p.m., according to the Ventura County Fire Department. At least 400 personnel were battling the blaze along with several planes and helicopters. It remained uncontained late Thursday and was spreading east into Los Angeles County, officials said.

The fire is burning just south of Lake Piru, a reservoir located in the Los Padres National Forest. It’s close by Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area burned by the Hughes Fire in January. That fire burned about 15 square miles in six hours and put 50,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings.

Sunny, hot and dry conditions were expected in the area where the Canyon Fire was burning on Friday, with the daytime high near 100 degrees Fahrenheit  and minimum humidity in the mid-teens, according to the National Weather Service. Winds were expected to be light in the morning and grow from the south to southwest in the afternoon.

In LA County, around 2,700 residents evacuated with 700 structures under an evacuation order, officials said late Thursday. Another 14,000 residents and 5,000 structures were covered by an evacuation warning. Areas within the Val Verde zone had been reduced from an order to a warning.

The evacuation zones in nearby Ventura County were relatively unpopulated, Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd said Thursday. Fifty-six people were evacuated from the Lake Piru recreation area.

Related Articles

Judge to consider the fate of an agreement on protecting immigrant children in US custody

California religious leaders launch effort to accompany immigrants to court amid Trump crackdown

Today in History: August 8, Nixon announces his resignation

Judge stops hazardous waste shipments to Michigan landfill from five states

Neo-Nazi group leader sentenced to 20 years in prison for planned Maryland power grid attack

Dowd called the blaze a “very dynamic situation” caused by hot, dry weather, steep and rugged terrain and dry fuel.

LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the district, urged residents to evacuate.

“Extreme heat and low humidity in our north county have created dangerous conditions where flames can spread with alarming speed,” Barger said in a statement. “If first responders tell you to leave, go—without hesitation.”

The new blaze comes as a massive wildfire in Central California became the state’s largest blaze of the year, threatening hundreds of homes and burning out of control in the Los Padres National Forest.

The Gifford Fire had spread to 155 square miles by Thursday night with 15% containment. It grew out of at least four smaller fires that erupted Aug. 1 along State Route 166, forcing closures in both directions east of Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000 people. It has injured at least four people. The causes of the fires are under investigation.

Wildfire risk will be elevated through the weekend across much of inland California as a heat wave gripping the area intensifies. August and September are typically the most dangerous months for wildfires in the state.

By VALERIE GONZALEZ, Associated Press

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A federal judge on Friday will hear a Trump administration request to end a nearly three-decade-old policy on ensuring safe conditions for immigrant children held in federal custody.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles will hold a hearing to consider dissolving a policy that limits how long Customs and Border Protection can hold immigrant children and that requires them to be kept in safe and sanitary conditions. The policy also allows third-party inspections of CBP facilities that hold immigrant children to ensure compliance.

Advocates for immigrant children have asked the judge to keep the protections and oversight in place and have submitted firsthand accounts from immigrants in family detention who described adults fighting children for clean water, despondent toddlers and a child with swollen feet who was denied a medical exam.

Related Articles

Fast-growing brush fire forces thousands to evacuate north of Los Angeles

California religious leaders launch effort to accompany immigrants to court amid Trump crackdown

Today in History: August 8, Nixon announces his resignation

Judge stops hazardous waste shipments to Michigan landfill from five states

Neo-Nazi group leader sentenced to 20 years in prison for planned Maryland power grid attack

In its motion, President Donald Trump’s administration said the government has made substantial changes since the Flores agreement was formalized in 1997. The government said it has created standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement.

Conditions for immigrant children who enter the U.S. without a parent “have substantially improved from those that precipitated this suit four decades ago,” the government wrote in its motion.

The agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, governs the conditions for all immigrant children in U.S. custody, including those traveling alone or with their parents. It also limits how long CBP can detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then takes custody of the children.

The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when HHS takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs.

Advocates for the children say the government is holding children beyond the time limits set out in the agreement. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours and that 14 children, including toddlers, were held for over 20 days in April. As part of their court filings, they included testimony from several families who were held in family detention centers in Texas.

If the judge terminates the settlement, the detention centers would be closed to third-party inspections.

The federal government is looking to expand its immigration detention space, including by building more centers like one in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” where a lawsuit alleges detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Thursday night that there will be increased presence of federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital to combat crime for at least the next week, amid President Donald Trump ‘s suggestions that his administration could fully take over running the city.

“Washington, DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens.”

Related Articles

Trump honors Purple Heart recipients, including 3 who sent him medals after attempt on his life

Trump administration asks high court to lift restrictions on Southern California immigration stops

Victims feeling exhausted and anxious about wrangling over Epstein files

Trump defends the US economy with charts after job reports showed warning signs

JD Vance went kayaking for his birthday. Secret Service had the river level raised

She added that the increased federal presence means “there will be no safe harbor for violent criminals in D.C.”

Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining — but could face steep pushback.

“We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump told reporters at the White House this week. “We have to run D.C.”

The White House said the increased law enforcement would “make D.C. safe again” and would be present on the streets starting at midnight — led by U.S. Park Police following an 11 p.m. Thursday roll call at an established command center.

The push will last the next seven days with the option to extend “as needed,” under the authority of Trump’s previous executive order establishing the Making DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force. The added federal officials will be identified, in marked units and highly visible, the White House said.

Participating law enforcement include personnel from the U.S. Capitol Police, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

The police forces for Amtrak and the city’s Metro rail service are also involved.

However a two-hour tour of the D.C. streets, starting around 1 a.m. Friday morning, revealed no evidence of the sort of multi-agency flood of uniformed personnel described in Trump’s announcement. There was a robust, but not unusual, Metropolitan Police Department presence in late-night hot spots like 14th Street and along Florida Avenue. But there was no overt or visible law enforcement presence other than the MPD.

Trump has long suggested crime and violence is on the rise in Washington, and has lately begun to criticize things like litter and graffiti. But the catalyst for the order to increase police presence was the assault last weekend on a high-profile member of the Department of Government Efficiency by a group of teenagers in an attempted carjacking.

The victim, Edward Coristine, nicknamed “Big Balls,” was among the most visible figures of DOGE, which was tasked with cutting jobs and slashing the federal bureaucracy. Police arrested two 15-year-olds and say they’re still looking for other members of the group.

“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore,” Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this week.

The president subsequently said he was considering repealing Washington’s limited Home Rule autonomy or “bringing in the National Guard, maybe very quickly.”

Thursday’s announcement comes as Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s government can claim to have reduced the number of homicides and carjackings — both of which spiked citywide in 2023.

Carjackings in Washington overall dropped significantly the following year in 2024, from 957 to just under 500, and the number is on track to decline again this year — with less than 200 recorded so far more than halfway through 2025.

SAN DIEGO — The message for the dozens of volunteers who would soon be supporting immigrants at their court hearings was clear.

“We’re not there to obstruct or prevent any arrest,” said the Rev. Hung Nguyen, associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Logan Heights. “We’re there to accompany people.”

The orientation meeting Monday was a precursor to the launch of The Faithful Accompaniment in Trust and Hope, or FAITH, a pilot program that will have religious leaders and volunteers present at San Diego’s immigration court to offer spiritual support, comfort and prayer to those who need it.

The program began Tuesday and will run through at least the end of the month as a salve to asylum seekers and immigrants navigating the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. Since late May, in an effort to ramp up deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been detaining people as they exit immigration courts, often after a judge has dismissed their cases at the request of government attorneys.

Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego Ramon Bejarano blesses the volunteers at the orientation. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The tactic has affected individuals who have been in the country for less than two years and now face expedited removal.

The program is being organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe church and the San Diego Organizing Project, a network of faith and spiritual congregations. Other faith communities are expected to join the effort.

The plan continues the work done by several other human rights advocates who have volunteered to be present in courtroom hallways over the past several weeks. On June 20, as part of World Refugee Day, San Diego Catholic Bishop Michael Pham led a coalition of religious leaders that accompanied immigrants and asylum seekers.

A table displaying FAITH buttons for volunteers to wear to court is displayed while San Diego Catholic Bishop Michael Pham speaks about the pilot program. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

But on that day, the federal immigration agents who usually wait in the hallway left shortly after the group arrived. There were no arrests, according to the volunteers who regularly join immigrants.

Pham said at the time he would consider returning if needed. He is expected to do so on Tuesday.

When asked if he expected a day without arrests again, he noted that “as we enter the court, anything could happen.”

“But we are being present. And that’s what is important for the people to see that there is support, that the people do care. That’s what is needed,” the newly installed bishop added.

Pham said he hopes refugees and asylum seekers will find some peace in the presence of volunteers as they prepare to face what lies ahead.

More than 50 volunteers have already signed up for the program. On Monday, they gathered at the San Diego Catholic Pastoral Center in Clairemont for a blessing and orientation. Three rows of volunteers had their questions answered while Pham listened from the back of the room.

The Rev. Scott Santarosa of Our Lady of Guadalupe said the bishop was interested in developing a program to continue the momentum seen in June.

Santarosa, who was part of the group that went to the federal building then, said he has been back in courtrooms ever since. He described witnessing people being arrested after their hearings as “terrible.”

For Gloria Morales-Palos, a community volunteer and co-chair of the San Diego Organizing Project, the program hits close to home. She said that she lived as an undocumented immigrant for several years, but she has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years now.

“I know what it’s like to be in a system where you don’t know what will happen or what your future will be, or if you’ll be separated from your family,” she said. “Under this administration, we have seen things get worse. If we cannot stop the deportation process for many families, then at least they should not go through it alone. They should feel supported and know that someone cares about them.”

On Friday, a federal judge paused the Trump administration’s efforts to fast-track the deportation of people who legally entered the country through humanitarian parole programs, including the now-defunct CBP One appointment process.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Monday that the ruling “is lawless and won’t stand.”

The effect of the ruling could be reflected in courtrooms — some of the immigrants who were being arrested following hearings had arrived in the U.S. through CBP One.

Margie Carroll, a volunteer, becomes emotional while learning about the pilot program. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Crystal Felix from the American Bar Association’s Immigration Justice Project of San Diego said the ruling doesn’t apply to other people who are still being arrested at their hearings.

“We’re hopefully there to witness and make sure that people in that posture are not getting arrested,” Felix added.

Felix, who presented part of the orientation, said the program shows immigrants and asylum seekers that “they are not alone.”

“It might influence the ICE agents, perhaps the government attorneys, the judges, to act in a little bit more of a respectful manner, to just make sure that dignity is still the No. 1 thing,” Felix said, “because these are our brothers and sisters.”