This article was meant to be an update on the aftermath of the devastating wildfires that wiped away some 13,000 homes in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Altadena, the Pacific Palisades, and my Malibu—the news peg being the Army Corp of Engineers and private companies have cleared the toxic rubble from nearly all affected sites. What now of the rebuild? I wanted to ask.

I am someone who has survived five wildfires in Malibu over three decades, not incidentally because of nature’s thermodynamics: my oceanside (midcentury modern) home has survived primarily because it becomes enveloped by the wet winds sucked inland by the rising heat of advancing fires, turning them away. Not so lucky have been many of my friends who live further from the coastline. In the past, most had rebuilt; all of that is uncertain now. 

But because the fires of January 2025 were the most severe, I was not optimistic, as I noted recently on Common Edge: “rebuild estimates are under 50%, maybe a third, for various reasons … hardened bureaucratic arteries, hardened insurance hearts, and just the time it would take. Woolsey Fire rebuilds still lag and that was six years ago. People just want to get on with their lives.” 

Then came yet another indicator of would-be dictator Trump, one of the many descriptions of the president echoing up and down the Los Angeles freeways: the appearance of ICE agents in an apparently chaotic, attention-seeking search for undocumented immigrants. The first confrontations, limited to downtown L.A., were dismaying, but one hoped the courts would intervene. (Though it was clear the threatened Trump tariffs no doubt would affect construction prices.)

Sure enough, driving through the devastated areas this summer, I saw scattered signs of rebuilding: story piles rising, foundations being poured, wood framing going up. And there were reports of foreign investors buying up properties, in particular the problematic oceanside sites edging the Pacific Coast Highway, where sewage was a concern, as well as possible encroachment on the sandy beaches. 

And, as if to further flout the courts’ decrees, the raids actually have grown worse, and more violent, with many ICE agents masked, in full battle gear, brandishing automatic weapons.

But the optimism did not last long. And though the federal courts did rule the roundups were illegal (based as they were on racial profiling) and issued restraining orders, they have been shockingly ignored. The harsh fact is that the Trump administration is violating court orders. And, as if to further flout the courts’ decrees, the raids actually have grown worse, and more violent, with many ICE agents masked, in full battle gear, and brandishing automatic weapons—scary (as this former Army platoon leader understands) to anyone who looks Hispanic and speaks Spanish (or an inflected English). 

Just consider some of what happened on the West Coast in the week before this post was published: a man was struck and killed by a car because he had run onto a freeway to escape an ICE raid at a Home Depot store; federal agents fired on a family vehicle fleeing what they thought was an attempted robbery by some men wearing uniforms; U.S. citizens were harshly confronted, with some taken down and, mistakenly, arrested; high school teens walking a dog, and another with disabilities, were subdued and cuffed.

(Not incidentally distressing to dog owners such as myself, with regard to federal agents arresting and immediately dragging immigrants off to wherever—it’s too bad if the often falsely accused had been living alone with a pet. These dogs and cats, no doubt confused and heartbroken, are reportedly being rescued by neighbors and taken to already overcrowded animal shelters, their fates unknown. Add this to the ever-growing list of Trump cruelties.) 

The incidents continue and are growing all too common, possibly inuring the public to them (as I suspect is the government’s intention). For the design profession and construction industry, which are central to the the immense challenge of the rebuild efforts, the raids have been calamitous, considering it’s reliably estimated that about half of the 23% of construction workforce who are immigrants are undocumented—so massive deportations would, in fact, deepen the housing crisis and possibly kill nascent rebuilding efforts. This would also undermine the administration’s goals to “lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply.”

These incidents do add up and, frankly, make it difficult to report on the rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles, clouded as they are by the continuing, destressing, ICE raids and the resultant fear-mongering. Tragically, much larger issues are at stake beyond the rebuild.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.