Californians With Student Loan Debt Face Uncertain Future

Here are the morning’s top stories on Tuesday, March 25, 2025…

• President Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the Department of Education. He also appears poised to make big changes to student loan programs. What could all this mean to people paying off their loans? 
• A California non-profit is suing the Trump Administration over its decision to end humanitarian parole programs. This comes after the Trump administration announced Friday that it will end a program for some Latin American and Caribbean countries.
• New maps show a significant increase in areas considered very high fire safety hazards across Southern California.

Saddled With Debt And Uncertainty, Some Fear They’ll Never Pay Off Student Loans

From the outside, it may look like Alan Roseto is living the American dream. He and his wife, Katie Gray, own a picturesque home in Catheys Valley with a rustic blue exterior and floor-to-ceiling windows in the rolling Sierra foothills just southwest of Mariposa. “We got it right before prices boomed,” said 54-year-old Roseto.

But the dream stops at a number hanging over his head that isn’t so cute: Roseto has $106,000 in student loan debt. “I didn’t really think about trying to pay it while I was in college,” he said. “I just figured, once I got out of college, I’d start paying the tuition as I went.”

Roseto got his undergraduate degree in wildlife biology 20 years ago at Colorado State University. Later, he went back to school for an online master’s in environmental law and policy. Now, he’s working as an environmental scientist for the state.

If all went according to plan, the debt Roseto took on to get through and build a career would sort itself out if he had a way to pay as he can. But in February, a judge determined the income-based repayment plan he had enrolled in was unconstitutional. Although the repayment plan had been held up in courts for years – prompted by a lawsuit filed by a handful of states during the Biden administration – the judge who made the ruling ending the plan had been appointed during the first Trump administration. And just this month, the U.S. Department of Education was ordered to cut its staff by nearly half – a move that is poised to have an even bigger effect on federal student loan programs. Just like millions of student loan borrowers, Roseto is left wondering what’s next for his debt.

Judge Hears Arguments In Case Involving Ending Of Parole Program

A judge in Boston heard oral arguments Monday on whether to block the CHNV parole program. It allows people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to stay and work in the United States for two years, as long as they have a financial sponsor.

The Biden-era program aimed to help create a legal pathway, as part of an effort to reduce the number of people crossing the border illegally.

The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it will revoke legal protections for those who came to this country under the program, setting them up for potential deportation in about a month. The order applies to about 532,000 people from the four countries who came to the United States since October 2022. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they will lose their legal status on April 24, or 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

More LA County Land Has ‘Very High’ Fire Hazard Severity Under New State Maps

Fire hazard has grown in Los Angeles County over the past decade, according to new state maps. The Office of the State Fire Marshal found that the land area considered to have “very high” fire hazard severity jumped more than 30% since the last assessment in 2011.

The Fire Hazard Severity Zone maps, published Monday for Southern California, show fire hazard creeping farther into some of L.A.’s most populous areas. “Very high” fire hazard severity now extends north of Ventura Boulevard in some parts of the San Fernando Valley, across San Vicente Boulevard farther into Santa Monica, and south of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.

The results will have implications for future building requirements in areas deemed to be a high fire hazard and will mean fire mitigation requirements for some property owners who are newly designated in the highest severity areas, according to CalFire.