As the Trump administration cuts budgets and threatens to revoke nonprofit tax-free status, some Southern California social justice groups have entered a defensive crouch in hopes of waiting for the storm of death.
They did not publicly cut plans with President Trump. Some people scrub their terminology sites such as “fair,” “inclusive,” and “transgender.” Others were told they should give up land confirmation – a tribute to the indigenous people of the region's first human inhabitant.
But other local nonprofits intend to fight. They slammed Trump's policies. They rejected the suggestion to change their mission statement. They went to court. A huge St. John's community health (providing 60 years of care for working class and immigrants in the area) is launching a campaign to convene Congressional Republicans believe they believe they are cutting Trump's budget cuts, which they believe will weaken health care for the poor.
The South Los Angeles-based Privileged Health Clinic System launched a media campaign Thursday with 10 other nonprofits that will focus on six U.S. House areas where Republican lawmakers support the president’s initial budget plan.
The newly created campaign of the Health Justice Action Fund will promote the theme of “The Importance of Medicaid to Me”. The organization plans to spend $2 million in the next few weeks to focus petitions, telephone banking, social media and radio advertising on six Republican lawmakers nationwide and tell them their components do not support major federal health plans that cut the poor and disabilities.
The Republican-controlled House and Senate approved a Trump budget framework that calls for $880 billion in operational actions overseen by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Trump and other Republicans insist that Medicaid does not have to be laid off. However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office disagrees, saying that the required savings can only be achieved through Medicaid cuts.
St. John Health in Los Angeles and its president and CEO Jim Mangia organized a new campaign to launch these cuts.
“The Medicaid cuts proposed by Republicans and President Trump will be devastating for the health of low-income families across the United States,” Mangia led St. John’s for a quarter of a century in an interview. “There are tens of millions of people relying on Medicaid, which is essential health care in California. Tax cuts for billionaires are perverted to what this country should be.”
Mangia and his board of directors said they understand their vast healthcare organization with more than 20 locations in Southern California is aiming to convene the president and his budget.
“Our posture is fighting,” Mangia said. “Many community health centers have been scratching their websites and removing words like 'trans' and 'African American' from their websites. We won't do that. We won't delete the people we serve.”
Leaders of nonprofits serving the poor, immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities have been having intense conversations, responding for weeks to how to respond to Trump and his policies that are explicitly designed to reduce services to certain populations.
Republican Rep. David Valadao represents a Central Valley district where nearly two-thirds of residents rely on Medicaid.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
Calnonprofits CEO Geoff Green said he may start trying to remove nonprofit status from certain groups, anxious about new highs when Trump said last week.
“There were financial pressures and budget cuts before,” Green said. “But now, it’s not only financial pressure but it’s directly targeting their presence and challenges at the heart of many of their work.”
Leaders of smaller organizations, especially, do not think they have the ability or money to bring the Trump administration to court. Others representing immigrants are concerned that their leaders or clients may be deported.
“For some in this community, it’s like a code conversion,” an executive at a social justice nonprofit declined to be named. “They may change some terms on the website, but that won't change their tasks. They want to avoid conflict or attacks, so they can show up on the other end and do their jobs.”
In one example, a nonprofit organization refused to receive a ruling sponsored by members of the California Legislature because the organization feared that the ruling would draw unnecessary attention to immigration services.
“At the end of the day, it's about protecting the most vulnerable people we are,” said the director of social justice. “Some organizations have more privileges, they have more resources. They have the ability to go to court. They may be bolder.”
Public legal counsel is one of the public interest law firms whose Trump administration signs a terminated contract. The potential loss of $1.6 million makes the Los Angeles-based company representing hundreds of immigrant children, unaccompanied minors who usually have no adult support.
Kathryn Eidmann, CEO of Public Legal Counsel, said she believes her organization has a responsibility to call it up injustice: keeping vulnerable children without agents.
“It is our responsibility to defend our mission and stand up for our clients and the rule of law,” Edman said. Public legal counsel is seeking to intervene on behalf of “sanctuary” cities such as Los Angeles, which are threatened by loss of federal funds, and the company has defended the law firm's defenses aimed at supporting groups that support the Trump administration.
Public legal counsel and other nonprofit law firms continue to wait to see if the Trump administration will respect the judge's temporary restraining order, requiring funds to continue to flow to those representing immigrant children. A spokesperson for public legal counsel said that as of Wednesday, funds had not been restored.
The Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust is Trump’s opposition, another Los Angeles-area nonprofit that threatens to lose federal funds.
The group won a $500,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to help ensure the reconstruction of the Los Angeles River in northeast Los Angeles for housing, jobs and services for working-class families. But there is no explanation this year and the money stopped.
“For them, it could be a waste of money,” Kyle said. “For us, it’s about developing and building fairly in a way that supports everyone.”
KJER said a staff member of a liberal House member urged her team to keep a low profile, for example, to delete the Aboriginal land confirmation in the signature line of all its emails. She refused to do so.
“We are not going to change the way we do because of Trump,” Kyle said. “In California, as a state and the region, we are still very progressive. If we can’t leave this kind of work here, we’re going to really have trouble. We feel we need to resist, even if it’s small.”
The campaign against potential Medicaid cuts will focus on using a high federally funded health system, with six homes owned by Republicans, at best a narrow electoral advantage.
Targeted areas include David Valadao in the Central Valley and Ken Calvert in Coachella Valley. Nearly two-thirds of Valadao voters use Medicaid, while about 30% in Calvert area do so.
Residents in these areas will hear how the Trump budget plan threatens to cut Medicaid for “everyday people” and how to significantly reduce rural hospitals that may be closed as they already work to make ends meet.
The Health Justice Action Fund is created by St. John and about 10 other healthcare providers who choose to remain anonymous. The regulations governing such funds allow them (unlike the nonprofits themselves) to engage in unlimited lobbying and some political activities.
St. John’s Community Health President and CEO Jim Mangia, to the right, was in the group group in 2022 with then Minister of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and La Menyor Karen Bass.
(Damian Dovarganes/AP)
The rules also allow contributors to remain anonymous, which Mangiya said is necessary for some of his partners who believe they will be granted revenge if they are obvious to them and they try to block Trump's policies.
Despite the opposite view of experts, House Republicans argued that Trump could enforce Trump's layoffs without accepting services from Medicaid recipients.
Valadao is one of more than a dozen House Republicans who wrote to party leaders saying that if it is forced to force the White House plan to force Medicaid. Republican leaders assured their swing colleagues that they intend to eradicate only waste, fraud and abuse, rather than cut Medicaid benefits.
Mangiya said the campaign he and his allies should make House Republicans more aware that Medicaid cannot be cut.
“There is a very terrifying environment right now,” Mangia said. “But there is someone who has to step up the defense of Medicaid, and its essential health care for many. We are not going to let this happen without fighting.”
