Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe, family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 45 years.

Call one 800 Bill Howe or visit Bill howe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darlene Marcos Shiley.

And by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Time is running out for the more than 1000 Afghans in a temporary refugee camp in Qatar.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

The war time U.S.

allies were on the way to relocating in the United States until Donald Trump returned to office.

Kpbs military and veterans reporter Andrew Dyer says lawmakers heard directly from some of the Afghans this weekend.

More than 1100 Afghans, 400 of them children, have been living at Camp Azalea in Doha, Qatar, since at least January 2025.

They've been stuck at the camp since Donald Trump halted all refugee resettlement over the weekend.

Some were able to speak directly to members of Congress.

An Afghan woman who asked us not to use her name, said her family has been at the camp for a year and seven months.

My biggest concern is my children.

They have not been able to go to school for almost two years, and they are failing behind in their education.

The camp is set to close at the end of September.

Reportedly, the U.S.

has considered relocating the refugees to the Democratic Republic of Congo or sending them back to Afghanistan.

All of them were allies of the US government, all of them brought there by the Biden administration.

Sean Jamshidi was a gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps.

He has five family members at the State Department run camp.

Sometimes I don't know what to tell them.

I'm like, I just tell him, be patient, be patient.

But enough.

It's coming to the point where, like, there's nothing else to tell anybody and say, like we're there.

No one's able to do anything other than the president at this point.

A recent State Department report says more than 23,000 Afghans have approved visa applications in process.

The same report says none were issued this year.

San Diego Representative Democrat Scott Peters led the virtual delegation.

I heard a lot of things today about waiting, and it struck me that, for kids, their lives of the big portion of their lives is being consumed by not going to school and, you know, not moving forward in their lives.

I think that's heartbreaking.

And I think that's wrong.

Two other Democratic lawmakers, Orange County Representative Lu Korea and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, were on the zoom call with the Afghans at the camp.

Blumenthal called the stories shared by them riveting and frankly repugnant to my sense of justice and fairness.

My image of my America.

I don't recognize America in the denial of promises and breaking of our word to these family members.

The lawmakers told the refugees they'll put more pressure on Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other members of Congress.

Resettlement isn't frozen for every refugee group.

Since October, the Trump administration has admitted more than 6000 white South Africans and plans to admit thousands more.

Andrew Dyer, Kpbs news.

This is the final week of the World Cup.

Here at Kpbs, we have spent the last month bringing you stories of all the different ways San Diego have celebrated the summer of soccer, from watch parties in Tijuana to which teams made our region their home base.

And now we have Kpbs reporter Gustavo Solis here to tell us about a different kind of World Cup story, and this one about people following the tournament from the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Welcome, Gustavo.

Hello, Maya.

First of all, can you tell us how did you come across this story, please?

Yeah.

Something I've been hearing about for for a few weeks now from immigration lawyers and they just heard it from their clients, and it stood out because normally when you hear from folks in the otay mesa detention center You hear about horrible conditions, bad food, medical emergencies and their clients, for the first time in a long time, had something they were looking forward to, something that was bringing them joy in this pretty joyless place.

You know, in a detention center.

I imagine interviewing people is very different than ordinarily as a journalist.

So what is the process of interviewing someone in the detention center?

Yeah, it's tricky.

It's tricky.

I mean, you can't just show up and say, hey, I want to interview somebody, right?

You got to give them a name beforehand.

The the a number, their case number.

And even just showing up in there, I recorded as much as I could, but I found out very quickly that you cannot bring in audio or video recording equipment at all.

All right.

So do you have any weapons, cell phones, tobacco?

No.

No weapons.

I do have a phone.

I can one meter run back in the car and put it away.

So you got to leave your cell phones in the vehicle.

Yeah, and there it is, Gustavo.

And you spoke with a man from Cape Verde, and he has a very interesting story.

What did he have to say about the World Cup?

Yeah, well, for folks who don't know Cape Verde.

Right.

A small island nation off the coast of West Africa really made a name of themselves.

In this World Cup, they had really great results against European heavyweights like Spain and Argentina.

When they got knocked out.

And they kind of became the underdog.

The Cinderella story of the tournament.

And here's this man from Cape Verde in detention.

Just very proud to see his team competing.

And he told me that when his team played, there were detainees from other countries, who aren't in the World Cup like Guatemala, Honduras and even the ones, the popular ones who were in the World Cup like Mexico.

There's a lot of Mexicans at the otay mesa detention center.

When Cape Verde was playing, they would support his team.

And he told me, you know, the passion and strength and fight that they showed on the field.

They kind of encouraged him to keep going as well.

A little bit of hope for him.

And you in your previous reporting, you noted that more than 80% of the people who are detained at the detention center do not have criminal convictions.

So explain that to us.

Yeah, I think that's something really important to keep in mind whenever we talk about these stories.

Immigration law, it's not criminal law.

It's administrative civil law.

Immigration detention is not meant to be punitive criminal detention, like going to jail or prison.

It's meant to be administrative detention.

Right now in the country, there are more than 60,000 people in detention centers across the US, the most in recent memory.

And the vast majority of them, like the ones here at the otay mesa detention center, do not have criminal convictions.

This is according to data from our own federal government.

So I think when the conversation, about immigration, is always kind of married with the public safety crime conversation.

That's not always the case.

So I think that's why I like to always highlight this fact that a lot of the people in here, no criminal convictions of any kind.

Well, we really appreciate what you found.

And for your reporting, Gustavo Solis, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Maya.

Well, we've warmed up a little bit compared to last week, overnight temperatures getting down into the upper 60s with mostly clear skies.

We have some changes this week, and you're already feeling some of it.

I'm sure I'll break down what to expect with the humidity, the rain chances and our temperatures coming up.

Longtime Republican Senator Lindsey Graham died this weekend after a sudden illness.

He was 71.

California Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla paid tribute to Graham as well as Congressman Darrell Issa.

Padilla released a statement saying in part, while he and Graham disagreed on much, I respect Lindsey's dedication to public service from his time in the military, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Angela and I are praying for his loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.

And Congressman Issa also posted a statement on X saying shocking, terrible news.

Lindsey Graham was great to know and work with and he is already missed.

And Graham's death has upended the Senate ahead of what could be a pivotal few months.

Michael Yoshida explains what this means for getting things passed through Congress.

Shakeup in the Senate following the death of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

We have lost a statesman that would bring both sides together as he did through the legislation.

But he also built a bridge for the Senate to the white House.

While Graham's death kicks off a political scramble to replace him on the November ballot.

For the time being, it won't change Senate Republicans narrow majority.

As South Carolina's Republican governor is appointing a temporary replacement.

Still, the GOP is losing an influential voice and a veteran dealmaker.

His voice is going to be really, really missed in terms of the relationship that Senate Republicans have with the president, his team, because he was so good and so affective at talking to the president, and he was so respected by the president.

Graham was a key player in several ongoing and upcoming legislative battles, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanches confirmation process.

He also chaired the Senate Budget Committee, which is trying to muscle through parts of President Trump's voter ID bill.

Also, amid a white House push, Graham advocated for more defense funding for the Iran war, which faces a difficult path in Congress.

And he was a vocal supporter of Ukraine just days before his death, celebrating a major victory for his bipartisan push to impose crippling tariffs on countries that import Russian oil and energy sources.

It's clearly a loss for Ukraine, primarily because Lindsey Graham was a Republican who both strongly supported Ukraine and had Donald Trump's ear.

in Washington, Michael Yoshida.

I'm Geoff Bennett.

Tonight on the NewsHour, the US once again blockades the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran heats back up.

That's at seven after Evening Edition on Kpbs.

Gas prices in San Diego County dropped an eighth of a cent today to $5.44.

You may want to fill up your tank soon because gas prices are expected to go up again.

And as due to escalating tensions between the U.S.

and Iran.

Jen Sullivan looks at why prices are rising.

Prices at the pump are going up once again, but it's not all bad news.

I'm not expecting that we're going to see record setting prices yet.

Patrick Dehaan with GasBuddy says when oil prices go up like they are right now, gas prices typically increase about 24 to 48 hours later.

So why are oil prices going up?

Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated in the last few days after both countries launched more strikes.

The attacks have threatened the fragile peace agreement.

Iran is keenly aware of the fact that it cannot match the United States and Israel militarily, so it is trying to turn the conflict from a military one into an economic one.

And now both sides want to block maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

It's a major waterway for global energy trade.

Roughly 20% of the world's oil supply travels through the strait.

Any small impact is going to have a very big ripple effect on not just one country, but all of us.

As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gas was $3.87.

That's up $0.07 in the last week and $0.72 higher than a year ago, according to AAA.

Gas prices aren't likely to come back down until tensions ease between the US and Iran, which could take time.

On both sides, we have diplomats who want to resolve this diplomatically, but at the same time, we have military officials that want to inflict pain on the other side.

As long as the war continues.

Consumers will still feel the financial crunch.

For consumer watch, I'm Jenn Sullivan.

A huge solar energy and battery storage project is a step closer to reality in Boulevard.

It's faced some pushback from nearby residents, but the San Diego County Planning Commission approved it at a long meeting on Friday.

Kpbs reporter Elaine Alfaro says Starlite Solar is one of the latest renewable energy projects planned for East County.

After hours of presentations, public comment and discussion, the county Planning Commission unanimously approved Starlite Solar in a 7 to 0 vote.

It's one of the largest solar and battery storage projects in the county, and would transform sections of natural space between old highway 80 and the U.S.

Mexico border.

Community members made the hour plus drive to the County Administration Center building in downtown to share their concerns about the loss of natural landscapes and potential impacts on the local water table.

Many are also wary of the fire hazards that can come with battery storage systems.

Me and my wife have worked all of our lives and we just I just recently retired.

My wife's been, retired for two years.

We wanted to come out to the rural area so we can be a more of a quieter environment.

And when you take the environment away, you seen all the dust and stuff that these things happen to stuff.

It's not it's not the way it was or are going to be what we came out there to live out there.

Starlight will roll out in two phases on roughly 600 acres of land owned by the Hagan Company.

They have an extensive real estate development portfolio in Southern California.

The commissioners greenlit the project as long as the applicant can accommodate certain changes, including move portions of the battery, energy storage system farther away from residences, implement certain dust control monitoring measures during construction, and increase the amount of money the applicant will give to the community in what's known as a community benefit fund.

The proposed changes have reassured some skeptical residents.

I think actually the, the commissioners have heard from us.

I'm feeling more positive leaving this meeting, than the concern.

When I arrived.

Boulevard residents demanded these changes after seeing the impacts of another solar project on nearby communities.

Jim Whalen is the land use consultant for the Hagan Company.

He's happy with the outcome of the meeting and intends to implement the requested changes.

Seven to nothing vote is very telling.

And if both sides are declaring, happiness with the outcome, that's unusual.

And, you know, we call that a win win.

But some boulevard residents, like forest, say they'll continue to voice their opposition.

I don't care about the money that's come into the community.

I would like to see it be totally stopped because it's not good for the environment.

A county spokesperson said the county Board of Supervisors will vote on the project on September 16th.

Elaine Alfaro, Kpbs news.

There are almost half a million DACA recipients in the United States.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program offers legal status to people who were brought into the country illegally as children.

Kpbs reporter Gustavo Soliz says many of them are now losing their status because of administrative delays.

I'm at the law office of Adam Pena.

He's calling a client who recently had her DACA status expire.

Hello?

Hey, Rosario.

Hi Adam.

I'm here with, Gustavo.

Hello.

Hello Gustavo.

Rosario has been in the DACA program for 14 years, and like every other DACA holder, she renews it every two years.

Pena says she filed for renewal last December.

It's been more than six months.

She lost her DACA authorization in March of this year.

And, she is very stressed.

Losing DACA essentially turns Rosario into an undocumented immigrant overnight.

Her boss told her that she cannot legally work for him anymore.

Literally made me cry because of this.

If they're telling you that, you're not going to work anymore, so what are you going to do?

You don't to no papers to go and apply somewhere else.

The whole experience has been a gut punch to the single mother of three, whose oldest daughter is an active duty soldier in the US Army.

I don't think that that is fair for.

And some that were trying so hard to stay here and work hard, because that's what we're here for.

Trying to be a good citizen to be an example that we could live here with no issues at all.

DACA recipients all over the country are losing their status because of unusually lengthy delays, according to federal data.

It only took two weeks on average to process renewal applications in 2025.

Now, the average wait time is almost three months.

And lawyers Kpbs spoke to say some clients waiting six months or longer.

Immigration lawyer Marciela Amezola noticed something was off at the start of this year, when she'd normally be hearing back on applications.

She filed in November, February rolls around March, April.

And now people are reaching out to us saying, hey, my boss, just send me a letter that I am about to lose my job.

I have clients that are nurses that ended up going to the swap meets to sell food.

I have clients who had to get unemployment.

Amezola has been practicing law since before President Obama created the DACA program in 2012.

I think at this point, these kids and they're not kids, they're all grown now.

Parents and business owners, right?

Is that they already are established in this community.

They are more American than they are whatever their first, you know, their birth country is.

One of her clients worked at the district attorney's office in a unit that tackles the most sensitive cases child abuse, animal abuse, elder abuse and domestic violence.

She lost her job after her DACA status expired because of delays.

The woman asked Kpbs not to identify her out of concern for her immigration status.

And then you start to think, what am I going to do?

Because I have no income, I have bills to pay.

I mean, the bills and the rent are not going to wait for you to, for you to find a job.

The main one is rent.

And then you have you have gas, you have internet, you have cell phone, you have insurance, car insurance.

You have I have pet insurance.

Then you have groceries.

I mean, the list goes on and on and on.

The woman's DACA status was finally renewed at the end of June, but she has to reapply for her job in the district attorney's office, and it takes at least a few months to go through the hiring process.

She says that DACA holders feel like they're under attack, as if the government doesn't want them here anymore.

They want to, I guess, in a way, break us down, because obviously if you can't survive here, what other option is it for you but to leave?

But she takes comfort in the fact that recent Gallup poll shows 85% of Americans, including 71% of Republicans, support DACA holders having a pathway to citizenship.

Gustavo Solis, Kpbs news.

Well, monsoon season is here.

And while most of the impacts are a little bit further inland in the southwestern US, we do have some thunderstorm chances to talk about.

Our temperatures are going to keep climbing into the middle of the week.

And we do have a coastal flood risk to talk about.

Too not related to the rainfall, but instead our evening high tides getting up above seven feet in some spots.

So just keep in mind that that is a risk.

But we also have heat alerts out now.

We have an extreme heat.

Watch this is in effect Tuesday morning through Thursday evening.

So anybody highlighted here keep it in mind.

It's really more our coastal and inland regions rather than our mountain and desert areas.

So opposite of last week.

Let's put some numbers to it.

So overnight tonight we're in the mid 70s in Borrego Springs.

You know what that means for our high temperatures.

Triple digits of course closer to the coast though mid 60s in Oceanside, almost 70 in San Diego and mid 60s for Chula Vista as well.

As we head into tomorrow, what does all of this mean?

Well, you see our rainfall chances now.

They're going to be best over the next couple of days into the mountains.

That's how it tends to go.

But we do have some rain chances elsewhere that I'll show you on future radar as well.

106 is our high tomorrow.

Borrego Springs mid 70s for Mount Laguna pushing 80 in San Diego.

We're at 80 in Oceanside, 95 for Ramona.

All right.

Here's what I was talking about with the rain.

So as we head into the rest of tonight in the overnight, that's our best shot for getting some rain in our coastal areas or inland regions.

But it's still do we have enough moisture for it to actually reach the ground?

We've increased the humidity.

We've gotten that monsoonal moisture moving in all of the cloud cover so we could see a few sprinkles as we go forward.

Here, though, maybe we see a few showers into the mountains as we go into tomorrow.

They dwindle day by day.

I mean, you can see a lot of the action is further inland there, but I just don't want you to be caught off guard.

If we do get some rain coming down, maybe a rumble of thunder or two, but really, it's pretty low rain chances overall.

Looking at our five day outlook.

Well, we hit 83 by Wednesday and then our temperatures start to fall once again along the coast.

Further inland.

95 that's our peak of this heat Wednesday.

And then we go down.

But it's a little bit of a roller coaster.

We hit 88 by the time we get to Saturday.

Then Tuesday 74.

There's our thunderstorm chances.

Like I mentioned, we continue to see those temperatures climb.

We go down a little bit.

Friday, 71 to a jump of ten degrees by the time we get to Saturday back into the 80s.

So temperatures a little all over the place this week for our desert regions.

Wednesday you hit your peak 108.

Hey, at least it's below 110.

But we do stay in the triple digits all week and into the weekend, so get used to it.

For Kpbs news, I'm AccuWeather's Anna Azallion.

So here's a great story for you.

A 12 year old western lowland gorilla is alive and thriving today.

It's thanks to what is believed to be a first of its kind surgery by UC San Diego health physicians in March.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park Wildlife care specialists noticed that Mazany, the gorilla, was exhibiting behaviors associated with head pain, so a CT scan confirmed he had sinusitis and mastoiditis, which is an infection of the large bone in the ear.

Then, more than 20 veterinarians, physicians and wildlife care specialists helped perform a five hour surgery to fix it.

And the good news is the surgery was successful, and doctors say that Mazany is now recovering quite well.

Good luck.

A new night market kicked off in National City this weekend.

Kpbs reporter Kori Suzuki says the market brought food vendors open table mahjong and live music to East eighth Street.

The market took place in Old Schoolhouse Square, a small strip mall on the east side of National City.

There were dumplings, lumpia, pancit, and skewers of barbecue.

Vendors sold perfume and vintage clothes.

A band played in the glow of the towering shopping center sign.

Jordan Martin was enjoying the atmosphere.

She stood in line for lemonade with her cousin.

Martin says she recently moved back to San Diego after a stint in Arizona.

I moved in a hurry once I graduated, just because I felt like there wasn't anything out here.

I had saw like one area my whole life, but coming back to see different things like this, people out in public and like fun activities to get into, so it makes it worthwhile to be back.

Night markets are a staple of many major cities in Asia and are becoming more popular in California.

Organizers hope to see this one in national City take off as well.

This weekend's event was a collaboration between two local businesses Thaio a Thai and Filipino pop up cafe, and Villa manila, a Filipino restaurant in National City.

Rayven Woodley and Audie Bundchen are the founders of Tyo.

Woodley says they were excited to bring the market to a place with strong roots in different Asian communities.

This area, I will say, is more of an older crowd, so it's also really nice to be able to introduce all of these vendors to people who have seen, like, just so much happen to this area.

Fabe Fan was overseeing the mahjong tables.

I mean, I think it's awesome.

I feel it's great that Rayven was able to put all this together and for all the small businesses around here, and I mean, I love just getting everyone involved in mahjong.

As it got dark, a sprinkle of rain started to fall, but the summer shower quickly passed and the market went on late into the evening.

Kori Suzuki, KPBS news.

A lot of fun.

Here is a look at what we're working on for tomorrow in the Kpbs newsroom.

Paramount says it's committed to completing its acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery this summer.

Now, California is joining 11 other states in an antitrust lawsuit to block that deal.

More on NPR's Morning Edition.

And you can find tonight's stories on our website, kpbs.org.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Maya Trabulsi.

Good night.

Major funding for Kpbs Evening Edition has been made possible in part by Bill Howe, family of companies providing San Diego with plumbing, heating, air restoration and flood services for over 45 years.

Call one 800 Bill Howe or visit Bill howe.com.

And by the Conrad Prebys Foundation.

Darlene Marcos Shiley.

And by the following.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.