El Tecolote met the moment for S.F. Latino immigrants in 2025. Here’s what’s next

This year was an extraordinarily difficult one for our communities. From national immigration crackdowns and SNAP cuts to RV bans and courthouse arrests, immigrant and working-class Latino families in San Francisco faced ongoing threats at both the national and local level.

When President Donald Trump was elected last November, we knew that the most vulnerable people within the Latino communities we serve would soon be navigating heightened fear, rapid policy shifts, misinformation and limited access to culturally resonant local news and information.

As a bilingual, community-rooted newsroom, El Tecolote has long served as a trusted source for families when information feels scarce or unsafe. To meet this moment, we refocused our editorial and engagement strategy on those most at risk: immigrants and Spanish-speaking families.

In 2025, that meant strengthening coverage of immigration, public policy, public health and wellness. It meant listening directly through community tabling and events, launching a Spanish-language WhatsApp community, and building stronger partnerships with fellow newsrooms, service providers and the people most impacted by the news.

Across all of our platforms — website, social media, print, WhatsApp, email and events — we delivered breaking news, explainers, investigative reporting and service journalism in ways that are bilingual, visually rich and culturally resonant.

That approach led to steady growth in online readership, alongside much deeper engagement with our reporting. Active users increased by 24 percent, and readers spent more than 70 percent more time with our stories year over year, building on the 53 percent readership growth we achieved in 2024. We also received national and regional recognition for our community-centered visuals, investigative reporting and community journalism.

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re sharing some of our most impactful initiatives from the year. We hope you’ll consider supporting this vital work by becoming a Founding Member or making a one-time donation today.

Immigration policy and impacts

As soon as President Trump entered office, his administration began rolling back key protections for immigrants. In response, our newsroom launched monthly immigration trackers to provide accessible updates on national policy changes with the highest stakes for Latino immigrants in San Francisco. These trackers quickly became some of the most-read articles on our website, with one reaching more than 30,000 visits, while also anchoring our Spanish-language WhatsApp updates and print edition.

Locally, we published explainers on family preparedness plans, closely monitored ICE activity, explained courthouse arrests, covered solidarity protests, and documented the deep impact that fear and detentions were having on our communities. We did so in the way our readers asked us to: with power, not panic.

That commitment was especially clear during a tense 48-hour period in 2025, when federal agencies confirmed an ICE “surge” toward San Francisco. In partnership with Mission Local, El Tecolote provided the only live, verified Spanish-language updates delivered directly to mobile devices. In just one day, nearly 800 people joined our WhatsApp community, many sharing the information with family and loved ones.

Beyond breaking news, we brought information into community spaces by tabling at local events and co-hosting forums on family preparedness, legal rights and emotional wellbeing, creating spaces where families could ask questions, build confidence and protect one another.

Public health and wellness

This year, El Tecolote deepened its commitment to public health reporting, with a focus on reaching and engaging immigrant communities. During community tabling and one-on-one conversations, residents repeatedly told us how important it is to talk openly about mental health.

In response, we launched a partnership with Somos Esenciales, a grassroots collective of Latina mothers, to produce first-person articles and social video aimed at destigmatizing mental health in our communities. This work led to the creation of a private WhatsApp group, Entre Nosotras, where our newsroom and community members share trusted mental health resources, uplifting stories and information about local events, as well as a space to connect with one another. To further address community questions, we also launched Querida Consejera, an advice column created for Latina mothers.

With support from the USC Center for Health Journalism, our newsroom expanded this work into deeper reporting. Together with community members, we produced in-depth stories on how immigrants are reclaiming ancestral mental health practices, embracing alternative approaches such as acupuncture, and navigating the impacts of homelessness and shelter policies on families’ wellbeing.

Notably, our investigative reporting on Artri King, a supplement widely marketed to Latino immigrants and linked to serious health risks, exposed how dangerous products can circulate largely unchecked in immigrant communities.

Following publication, which was syndicated by The Guardian, local clinics reported an increase in patients asking how to safely stop using the supplement after reading our coverage. At least one store in San Francisco’s Mission District removed Artri King from its shelves after our newsroom made inquiries.

The investigation generated significant engagement across platforms, including hundreds of reactions and thousands of views on TikTok, with responses from people who had used the supplement or whose family members had taken it. As a result, our reporter has been invited to speak about her findings on Spanish-language community radio in other parts of the country, extending the reach and impact of this reporting beyond our own channels .

Investigative and watchdog journalism

Accountability was central to our work this year. El Tecolote focused its investigative reporting on Latino communities in San Francisco that are often marginalized or disproportionately targeted by city policy, including homeless families, street vendors and RV residents.

Through sustained, on-the-ground reporting, extensive public records requests, and years of relationship-building, our newsroom broke stories in direct service of our community.

Most notably, this year we published one of our most ambitious long-form investigations to date, documenting San Francisco’s escalating efforts to displace RV residents. The investigation was informed by months of field reporting, extensive public records work and rooted in long-term trust with the people most affected. The project was honored by SPJ NorCal with an Excellence in Journalism Award and established our newsroom as a leading source on this issue.

We continued this reporting by exposing the failures of enforcement-first policies, explaining how legislation would impact people’s daily lives and prompting a city investigation into allegations that a city worker sold RV parking permits for cash.

This body of work became our most-read and most-cited coverage of the year across platforms, reaching thousands of people through search, social media and our print newspaper. It was also syndicated by KQED for broader reach. More importantly, it established a model for reporting with vulnerable communities, not simply about them. Through bilingual explainers, WhatsApp outreach and visually driven storytelling, we ensured our investigations were both rigorous and directly useful.

What’s next?

We accomplished a great deal this year, and we know another uncertain year lies ahead. In 2026, El Tecolote will continue listening closely to our community and responding to the issues that shape people’s daily lives. Our reporting and engagement will focus on four core pillars, grounded in what our readers tell us they need most:

• Emergencies: From immigration enforcement and food access disruptions to extreme weather and public health threats, we will strengthen our rapid-response journalism — particularly through WhatsApp, print, and in-person outreach — so families can access timely, reliable information in Spanish when it matters most.
• Community and accountability: We will remain committed to holding institutions accountable for how public policy impacts our communities through investigative and watchdog journalism, with continued focus on RV residents, homeless mothers, street vendors and undocumented immigrants. We will provide service-oriented explainers and resource columns that help readers understand their rights and options.
• Affordability: We will deepen coverage of the rising cost of living, including renters’ rights, affordable housing access, food insecurity and the needs of aging seniors. As costs rise and policies shift, our goal is to provide families with clear reporting and practical resources that help them navigate systems that are often confusing and inaccessible.
• Resilience: Our communities are not defined only by hardship. We will continue investing in arts and culture, mental health, advice columns and grassroots organizing, highlighting how Latino communities sustain themselves, care for one another and build power in the face of uncertainty.

Together, these priorities will guide our work, ensuring that San Francisco’s Latino communities are informed, defended and uplifted in the year ahead.

Help our newsroom meet the moment for immigrant and working-class Latinos. By becoming a Founding Member or making a one-time donation, you help sustain journalism that is rooted in community, responsive to real needs, and ready for whatever comes next.

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