NPR’s “Morning Edition” featured UCLA’s Arturo Vargas Bustamante discussing how the debate over birthright citizenship could affect maternal and infant health. Bustamante, professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and director of faculty research at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute, said fear around immigration policies may already be discouraging some pregnant patients from seeking care, which can lead to long-term health consequences for their children. Read more about UCLA in today’s Associated Press and CNN.

More highlights from UCLA in the News: March 31, 2026

Bond market in flux amid war, high oil prices, inflation | Marketplace

“It’s hard to say for sure, because it’s sort of in a very incredible balance right now, between fears of inflation and high oil prices and the Strait of Hormuz. But at the same time, the U.S. is still seen as a safe haven. So for now, we’ve seen yields increase, but not as dramatically as we might’ve expected, given where gas prices are,” said UCLA’s Andrea Eisfeldt.  

California Latinos are working more, earning less | Los Angeles Times’ “De Los”

A new study by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute released Thursday found that despite Latinos being highly employable, they remained highly underpaid. The State of Latinos in California report analyzed the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey data from 2019 to 2023. Included in the analysis were examinations of pay distribution, employment conditions, labor load and education rates of a demographic that makes up 39% of the Golden State’s labor force.

The perils of building a movement around a single leader | The Guardian

Veronica Terriquez, director of the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA, said there was plenty of decentralization in the UFW that got glossed over in historical accounts. “The farm worker movement and subsequent labor organizing it gave birth to were built by a lot of workers in alliance with students and other community activists,” she said.  

Are California sheriffs answerable to anyone? | Los Angeles Times

“This is about more than just what Sheriff Bianco is doing,” said Matt Barreto, faculty director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project. “... It shouldn’t happen. And again, it doesn’t matter if Democrats are winning or Republicans are winning, no sheriff should come in and take over possession or counting of ballots.”

Nation’s most contaminated sites are vulnerable to flooding, fires | Associated Press

Lara Cushing, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied the effects of a changing climate on the nation’s toxic waste sites, petrochemical plants and other hazardous areas, called the new reports “noteworthy and important.” “Although President Trump may wish to ignore it, the fact is the climate is changing and we need to be proactive in responding to rising seas and more extreme weather or face the consequences of increasingly frequent cascading natural-technological disasters that poison communities and local ecosystems,” said Cushing.

A county sales tax to save California health clinics | Capital & Main

Nearly 3 million fewer Californians will be enrolled in Medi-Cal by 2028, according to a recent analysis by the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Many of those will be people who struggle to understand the new federal work requirements, get lost in mounds of red tape, get thrown off of coverage by the state because of their documentation status or forget that they now have to requalify for benefits every six months instead of once a year.