07/25/2025
What happens when communities are threatened with deportation?
Sarina Rodriguez, a Cohort 2024 Health Policy Research Scholar and PhD student in Public Health at UC Merced, contributed to a recent study published by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with UC Merced. The report helped uncover the human and economic toll of mass deportation. Their research found that the loss of California’s undocumented workforce could cost the state $275 billion.
But Sarina’s work goes beyond the numbers.
“You need the numbers to show the scale of harm, but you also need the stories to show why it matters.”
This research, which was cited in Governor Newsom’s 2025 budget, documents what communities have long been saying: the impact of immigration policy is already here.
“Sometimes our role as researchers is just to make it harder to ignore.”
Read the full story: https://bit.ly/41epbUT
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