El Tecolote

07/10/2025

Immigration Tracker: October updates 📰

El Tecolote has been tracking major immigration policy changes since Trump took office in January, publishing updates on our website, Spanish-only WhatsApp, weekly newsletter and biweekly print edition.

Our October Tracker is now live at eltecolote.org, and we’ll continue updating it every week as new developments unfold. Here are the latest updates:

* Federal enforcement: Trump deployed the National Guard to Portland and Chicago, but both cities fought back in court. D

* TPS protections ended: The Supreme Court ended TPS for Venezuelans, while protections for Hondurans and Nicaraguans were revoked. Haitians remain protected under a lawsuit.

* Self-deportation incentives: The administration is offering $2,500 to minors in custody who agree to self-deport — a move advocates say threatens due process.

* DACA reopening: For the first time in years, the federal government plans to process new DACA applications, except in Texas, where recipients would lose work-permit eligibility.

Read full updates since Trump took office in January, visit at eltecolote.org
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Help us meet this critical moment for immigrants. Support our community newsroom today by becoming a founding member at the link in our bio.

07/10/2025

Immigration Tracker: Latest October updates 📰

• Trump’s latest National Guard deployments targeted Portland and Chicago, but both cities pushed back

• TPS was terminated for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans after a Supreme Court ruling Oct. 3

Follow our tracker for weekly updates.

Trump has rolled back key immigration protections. This tracker breaks down the most urgent policy changes in October.

02/10/2025

Querida Consejera,

How can I get ahead at work in this country as an immigrant woman and mother, without feeling excluded or invisible? Sometimes it feels like no matter how much effort I put in, there are always barriers.

— Nazareth

“Gracias por tu pregunta. Your feelings as an immigrant woman of being excluded or made to feel invisible are completely valid. Racism is being exposed in raw and painful ways and many of us are witnessing the targeting of individuals who came to this country fleeing violence and instability. Much of that suffering was created by policies in wealthier nations. This is a difficult and traumatic time and your emotional response makes perfect sense.

When we live under constant threat our nervous system enters survival mode. This can look like confusion, anxiety, sadness or anger. What you are feeling is not weakness. It is a normal response to trauma.

It is essential to start by naming those feelings and allowing yourself to feel them. Healing begins with acknowledgment. From there we can begin to find our strength again.”

Follow the link in our bio to read the full advice.
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Querida Consejera is an advice column led by bilingual therapist Michelle Gutierrez (), offering guidance rooted in our cultural traditions and collective resilience.

In her column, Michelle share practical tools, cultural insights, and answer your questions. Whatever’s on your mind, she’s here to help. You can write to her anonymously at [email protected].

02/10/2025

One Friday morning this summer, Rosario Ortegón, 55, woke up overwhelmed by sadness.

She even changed her route to avoid the Mission District after hearing a false rumor that ICE was in the neighborhood. On the bus, she replayed a news clip from Despierta América about the Trump administration restricting immigrant access to healthcare. By the time she reached her acupuncturist’s office, she said, she was sobbing.

On the table, needles were placed across her face and body. Soon after, Rosario fell asleep. When the session ended, she walked out feeling lighter.

Immigrant communities in San Francisco are turning to acupuncture for pain relief, mental health, and healing rooted in culture. Providers say it offers an alternative to opioids and helps bridge healthcare gaps. Yet looming budget cuts could put this care at risk.

Read the full story at the link in our bio.

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30/09/2025

Last night, as part of , El Tecolote hosted a listening session at our headquarters with community leaders and immigrant workers. Together, we reflected on what safety and trustworthy information mean in a time of heightened immigration enforcement.

Thank you to our partners , , Promotoras Activas SF and for helping create a safe space for testimonies, questions and resource sharing.

SF Rapid Response Hotline: 415-200-1548
Join our WhatsApp for immigration updates in Spanish by messaging (805) 705-9983.
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Help us meet this critical moment for immigrants. Support our community newsroom today by becoming a founding member at the link in our bio.

25/09/2025

The El Tecolote team has been out in the field, engaging with RV residents who risk displacement ahead of San Francisco’s citywide ban on large vehicles starting Nov. 1.starting Nov. 1. Under the new two-hour parking limit, oversized vehicles without a permit will face tickets and towing.

Our small newsroom is knocking on doors, sharing resources via print and adding neighbors to our RV WhatsApp group to answer questions about this looming policy change. At the same time, we’re filing public records requests to seek transparency and accountability for how the city is handling the displacement of Latino families.

Have questions or concerns about the new policy? Let us know, and we will find an answer.

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El Tecolote is celebrating 55 years of bilingual, bicultural news serving immigrants and working-class Latinos. Support our community newsroom today by becoming a founding member at the link in our bio.

24/09/2025

When Carlos Brito’s RV was towed in early September 2024, tears streamed down his face.

His mother had just died after an 18-year battle with ovarian cancer that worsened earlier that year. Brito, 72, was determined to keep paying rent on their subsidized Mission District apartment for seniors. But after her death, he was evicted.

For the first time, Brito slipped into homelessness. Hoping to avoid the streets, he bought a rundown RV for $600 from a neighbor. For many older immigrants and families, vehicles are a last resort, a fragile safety net.

Brito built a life in San Francisco as a construction worker. But age, injury and grief caught up with him. “I just want to live out my remaining years with dignity,” he says.

His story reflects a hidden crisis. A UCSF study found that nearly half of single homeless adults are over 50. Many were working poor who lost housing after a health crisis, a death in the family or one sudden turn of fortune.

Follow the link in our bio to read Brito’s story, and what it reveals about senior homelessness among Latinos in San Francisco.

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23/09/2025

Become a member of El Tecolote: Meet the moment for immigrant, working-class Latinos 🦉✨

As we celebrate El Tecolote’s 55th anniversary, we also face one of the most uncertain times for the communities we serve. While our work is vital and always free, it’s not without cost. It will take our entire community to sustain it through the looming threats and challenges ahead.

We invite you to help power our work by becoming a founding member of El Tecolote. Your support pays journalists’ wages, offsets print costs, and makes possible listening sessions, tabling events and in-person gatherings that directly engage with our communities.

Membership also brings you closer to the newsroom you help sustain: exclusive behind-the-scenes newsletters, recognition in our print edition, invitations to “inside-the-newsroom” Zoom meetings and even to our end-of-year holiday party.

Please consider joining us as a member today. Follow the link in our bio to join. Truly, we can’t do this work without you.

21/09/2025

The San Francisco Lowrider Council hosted the first-ever live lowrider parade and hopping competition in the Mission District, along 24th Street and Mission, to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month.

This decades-old tradition of cruising is now being passed on to a new generation.

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21/09/2025

Thousands of admirers packed Mission Street on Saturday to see more than 500 glossy lowriders cruise through San Francisco’s historic Latinx neighborhood. The event, organized by the San Francisco Lowrider Council in partnership with the Mission Merchants Association, marked the world’s first-ever televised lowrider parade. 

Cars gleamed with pinstriped paint jobs and colorful artworks, while others waved Salvadoran, Peruvian, and Mexican flags. Some participants traveled as far as Fresno, San Jose and even Los Angeles to be part of the celebration. 

The highlight of the event was the “King of the Streets” hopping competition, where drivers used hydraulic systems to make their cars leap off the pavement. The car that achieved the greatest height won a $10,000 prize.

In the 1980s, police targeted Latinx youth for cruising their lowriders. Saturday’s parade marked a different era for lowriding culture, one where it is celebrated as art, culture and community, breaking down stigma and offering a powerful way to honor Latino heritage. 

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19/09/2025

A coalition of immigrant rights organizations filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump Administration Thursday evening, challenging courthouse arrests of asylum seekers and detention conditions at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) San Francisco Field Office at 630 Sansome. The lawsuit says immigrants are sometimes held there for days in “punitive and inhumane” conditions while they wait to be transported to detention centers.  

The suit, which, filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCRSF), the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California (ACLU NorCal) and the Central American Resource Center of Northern California (CARECEN SF), contests recently implemented policies that allow ICE to make arrests at immigration court and to hold people in the field office’s cells for extended periods. 

“We’re trying to do everything we can so that these policies that put people in impossible choices and have turned our immigration courts into a trap are vacated and stopped,” said Nisha Kashyap, Program Director for the LCCRSF. “People [should be able to] safely go to court without fear of arrest.”

Follow the link I our bio to read more.

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19/09/2025

Starting Nov. 1, oversized vehicles without a Large Vehicle Refuge Permit (LVRP) could face tickets and towing under new 2-hour parking limits.

Here’s what to know:

 - The permit is only for residents counted in the city’s May 31 vehicle survey
 - Applications are due Oct. 24
 - Permits last up to 6 months
 - Holders must follow a strict “Good Neighbor Policy”
 - Accepting housing means giving up your vehicle home

Advocates say the rules are more about enforcement than support, while many RV residents say they’ve received little outreach or info.

“There was no reason for such a draconian policy,” wrote Guadalupe Velez of the Coalition on Homelessness in a press release. “The city could have simply had the resources available and the situation would be solved for most, and safe parking and RV parks could have been opened for others.”

Follow the link in our bio to read more on how to apply and what documents you’ll need.

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