City Council passes immigration resolution
By Israel Archie SENIOR STAFF WRITER
In a unanimous decision, the San José City Council approved a resolution that is focused on protecting immigrants despite mass deportation efforts set by the Trump administration on Tuesday.
Although President Donald Trump has already sanctioned deportation flights to Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp as a means to combat undocumented immigration, according to a Forbes article, the City of San José has made it clear that they do not agree.
Many residents of San
José, advocacy groups and immigration lawyers came to talk to the council about the importance of approving the resolution and the impact that immigrants have in the community.
Brandon Dawkins, vice president of organizing for the Service Employees International Union, referred to immigrants as the “backbone of this city” when urging the council to support the resolution.
“We just ask that you protect the rights of the workers and stand with them so that they can continue to carry the city on their backs,” Dawkins said.
While there aren’t
any legislative initiatives attached to the resolution, a few of the city council members, including San José Mayor Matt Mahan spoke on not aiding the federal government’s efforts.
“The policy that we are reaffirming today is fundamentally as others have stated is that our police department does not ask about status and does not engage in enforcement that is solely for the purpose of enforcing immigration law,” Mahan said.
According to an article from the Spartan Daily, there have been sightings of U.S. Immigration and Enforcement Customs
(ICE) in parts of San José leaving many immigrants worried about their protection.
Mahan also explained to the audience that because the deportations are a federal initiative, it is out of the city’s control because the council is operating within a local government threshold.
While Mahan doesn’t claim the term sanctuary city in a Jan. 29, NBC Bay Area article, he ensures the public that the city will do its best to protect immigrants while still operating in the confines of the law.
“There’s a lot of federal law that is simply not
our jurisdiction,” Mahan said. “We do not have the staffing, it does not further the good of the community or make us safer or stronger as a city to be going around asking people for some sort of documentation.”
Ariana Lacson, San José State Associated Students (A.S.) president, released a statement in response to ICE being active in San José.
“I want to reaffirm to every member of our community you belong here,” Lacson said. “San Jose State University is committed to upholding the values of inclusivity, equity and support for all students regardless of your
citizenship or immigration status.”
Mahan also invited San José Police Department Chief Paul Joseph to clarify with the audience what officers can and can’t do if there happens to be ICE activity.
“We will never detain anybody or arrest anybody because of immigration status,” Joseph said. “However, I can’t actively thwart something that a federal agency is doing any more than I could stop the FBI from coming to the city and taking some kind of action.”
San José also hosted its annual Day of Immigrants where businesses shut down for a day to give notice to what the city could be like with immigrants which can be seen in a Monday article from KTVU.
According to a statistic from DATAUSA, immigrants make up 40% of San Josè workforce.
Newly instated interim council member Carl Salas shared the importance of immigrants’ presence in San José.
“I also recognize the critical value that all of our people, especially our immigrants bring to this great city relative to the economy, diversity and humanity,” Salas said. “So I just want you all to know that I’m really proud to support this resolution.”
CHARITY SPICER
SPARTAN DAILY
Gloria Gonzalez (far left), member of SEIU Local 521, urges San José City Council to pass a resolution to help protect immigrants from ICE in
Audience of advocates and San José community members
Funding freeze could affect SJSU
By Anahi Herrera
CONTRIBUTOR
On Tuesday, Jan. 28, President Donald Trump pushed for a pause on federal funding for programs, causing confusion among students.
Initially, when the Office of Management and Budget released the pause on federal funds, grants, loans and assistance it was not described in detail to specific programs this would affect, according to a Jan. 29 New York Times article.
With a lack of detail, some students began to worry that this pause would affect the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Students need to complete a FAFSA application to be eligible to receive federal aid such as grants and loan, according to the The Federal Student Aid webpage.
Xzander Smith, a thirdyear public relations student at San José State, felt an added stress to his life when he heard the news of this freeze.
“From a student (point-
of-view), pausing any additional help feels like your future is out of your control and in a waiting game,” Smith said.
At SJSU alone more than 21,504 students received financial aid for the 20222023 academic year and more than $104.5 million in
having the money to pay for school.
“If these grants get affected, as a FASFA recipient it would be virtually impossible to pay tuition,” Rocha said. “It could create mental stress that will affect studies making the number of
benefit or whose side they are on,” Rocha said.
“At the moment it really seems that they don't care, which leaves me and other students wondering what the end goal is.”
The following day of this order, Jan. 29, Matthew Vaeth, acting director for
Lidia Rocha SJSU library and information science masters student
doing this to lower the government budget or do they systematically want to take away aid for those who systematically have been disadvantaged such as low income or (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) leaving little resources,” Rocha said.
to the same CNN article.
Kai Sano-Lim, a fourthyear international business student, sees this action as a point of regression for the United States.
“I personally see the turning back of (diversity, equity and inclusion reform) to be regressive to everything the United States has constructed up to this point,” Sano-Lim said. “It is becoming more and more alarming that the majority (of) public American opinion has changed.”
While no disruption in research efforts have yet to be reported on campus, there is a target on diversity, equity and inclusion that could affect SJSU.
Tuesday, Trump has signed to begin shrinking the Department of Education; it can be assumed more confusion will arise, according to the LA Times.
aid came from federal aid for the same year, according to the SJSU Financial Aid and Scholarships Office Brochure.
Lidia Rocha, a library and information science masters student, brought in concerns surrounding this confusion that go beyond
students that drop increase.”
The White House later clarified that federal loans, Pell grants or any other student aid were not affected by this freeze, according to a Jan. 29 Associated Press article.
“It’s created confusion on who they’re trying to
the Office of Management and Budget, told officials the funding freeze memo had been rescinded, according to the Jan. 29 New York Times article.
“It’s a step in the right direction to pause this action but it leaves me wondering if they are
The programs affected directly go against Trump’s administration ideologies, those programs include immigration, foreign aid, climate and energy, gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Funding for research has also been paused, according
“All of this is just causing further headaches for the future of Americans and I’m certainly concerned of the long-term implications and how this will end,” SanoLim said.
COLUMN: JACKSON EATS
Blow up the diet soda myth volcano
Jackson Lindstrom CONTRIBUTOR
You may have heard before that diet soda is actually worse for your health than regular soda, but I have serious doubts there is any evidence to back this myth up.
Diet soda has been given a bad reputation from misinformation in the nutrition space with many studies proving the usefulness of diet soda.
One example of this misinformation can be seen in a HuffPost article published on July 11, 2013 about how drinking soda might cause you to gain weight.
The article shows data from only a single study showing diet soda to have negative effects, along with several sources that do not from research journals.
Not only is this research hyperbolic in its portrayal of diet soda being bad for you, but it also portrays a false narrative about regular soda.
While there is some evidence that drinking artificial sweeteners may hurt health, that idea is missing an important factor: sugar-sweetened beverages are worse for your health.
Because sugary drinks are so hyper-palatable,
or easy to overeat, this can be a problem that leads to negative health outcomes, such as type 2 diabetes, according to a Cell Metabolism research article.
Replacing sugarsweetened beverages in your diet with low-calorie or zero-calorie sweetened beverages may aid in weight loss, according to an Ibero-American consensus published in the journal Nutrients on June 25, 2018.
Part of the reason why diet soda might work as an alternative to sugarsweetened soda is because diet soda often has no calories, according to MedlinePlus.
The best part is that diet soda is still quite tasty.
A calorie is a unit of measurement that measures energy, according to the National Institute of Health.
The National Institute of Health also said that when the body has excess energy – or in other words, excess calories – it will store that energy in the body as adipose tissue, known colloquially as fat.
I’m trying to lose weight, it is a simple, instantaneous way to reduce daily caloric intake so I don’t have to worry about wasting calories on a drink.
Drinking artificial sweeteners could have more benefits in weight loss than drinking water, according to a randomized clinical trial in 2015 that compared drinking water to drinking artificially sweetened beverages.
The study measured the weight of 308 participants over a year, with one group drinking at least 24 fluid ounces of artificial sweeteners per day and another group drinking at least 24 fluid ounces of water per day.
pounds.
The study also points out that some observational studies have shown a positive correlation between drinking artificial sweeteners and weight gain, but these studies are not able to find a cause-andeffect relationship in the same way randomized control trials can.
I don’t think diet soda is the “end all, be all.”
bracken fern, gasoline, and occupational exposure to dry cleaning, according to the same records.
The FDA also released a statement disagreeing with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which classified the substance as possibly carcinogenic.
There are probably cons to drinking diet soda, so don’t go replacing your water just yet, but these cons both have yet to be researched and have minimal effect.
When the body is in an energy deficit, it will take the adipose tissue it stored from excess calories and use it for energy, thus creating fat loss, according to the same article from the National Institute of Health.
At the end of the year, participants in the artificial sweetener group experienced an average weight loss of about 13.7 pounds, while participants in the water group experienced an average weight loss of about 5.4
This does not mean that you should replace water with diet soda, because water is an essential nutrient for optimal health, and there still may be data linking undesirable health effects with artificial sweeteners, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
These artificial sweeteners are what make diet soda taste good, despite having no nutritional content to support their tastiness, according to a Mar. 16, 2022 Nutrients review article.
Because it has no calories, diet soda is something that I can incorporate into my diet without making any changes at all. If
One common point in the debate over artificial sweeteners on health is the artificial sweetener aspartame, according to a July 14, 2023 article from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer recently classified aspartame, an artificial sweetener approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a group 2B carcinogen, a substance with the potential to cause cancer, according to the agency’s records.
This might sound alarming, but these agents are classified as “possibly carcinogenic.” Other agents included in group 2B include pickled vegetables,
The statement also said that aspartame is one of the most studied food additives, and the substance being classified as possibly carcinogenic does not mean it can actually cause cancer.
I find it highly unlikely that the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified aspartame as possibly carcinogenic because it may cause cancer. The more likely reason is that there is still not enough research to definitively prove that aspartame has no link to carcinogenic effects.
Another common argument against drinking artificial sweeteners is that it is detrimental to your gut health, according to a 2014 NPR article.
This claim, similar to the claim that artificial sweeteners cause cancer, has numerous studies disproving this.
Editor’s note: a longer version of this story is available on
Follow Jackson on Instagram @jacksonlindstrom
PHOTOS BY JACKSON LINDSTROM | SPARTAN DAILY
Marvel Rivals revives fanbase
Blaze Dayton STAFF WRITER
I have played video games for most of my life, so I have seen games rise and fall over the years but the most recent game to take a meteoric rise is a new game called “Marvel Rivals.”
This free-to-play thirdperson shooter game, developed by Chinese company NetEase Games in collaboration with Marvel Entertainment, was released on December 6, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.
Free video games are an interesting and bold business strategy that has worked very well in recent years, with titles such as the super-popular game Fortnite, which, at its peak, had 14,343,880 players worldwide, according to Fortnite.gg, the game’s official player tracker.
I have no problem with free-to-play games because, since the release of the PlayStation 5, I’ve seen the prices of other games increase significantly.
After only three days of release, the game had already generated 10 million players, according to an article by BrandVision Insights.
“Marvel Rivals” includes well-known
characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Venom, The Hulk, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, and Wolverine, with many more coming in the future, according to a Feb. 1, Gamerant article.
I have been enamored with Marvel ever since watching the “SpiderMan” movie with Tobey Maguire when I was a kid back in the 2000s; the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been climbing its way through the box office since its debut with the first Iron Man movie in 2008.
As of January 2025, Marvel's Cinematic Universe had the highest worldwide box office revenue. Marvel's
highest-grossing movie is “Avengers: Endgame,” according to a Jan. 6, article on Statista.
Unfortunately, Marvel's popularity declined before the release of “Marvel Rivals,” even with its high box office numbers over the past couple of years, it has dropped, according to a June 10, 2024 article in The Independent. I don’t believe that is the case because the emergence of “Marvel Rivals” has seemingly revived many fans’ interest in Marvel.
The game does a great job of incorporating comics into its video game. The characters don’t just look amazing; they act, sound, and fight like their comic book
counterparts.
I believe “Marvel Rivals” is just what Marvel and the gaming industry needed.
The typical Marvel comic nerd, like myself, just wants to see their comic brought to life in the most authentic way possible.
These gaming companies do so well with free games because the profit is earned primarily through in-game purchases by users, according to an article on Oct. 6, 2022 CNBC.
Much like “Fortnite,” you can buy various character skins to tap into your comic book or movie nostalgia, enhancing your gaming experience.
Celebrity video game
streamers like Tyler
“Ninja” Blevins help the games’ popularity, and he thinks “Marvel Rivals” success is here to stay.
“Here’s the thing – first off, they already have a new map coming, which is incredible. Second, they have so much lore and so many heroes, villains, and anti-heroes that they have enough for updates for the next ten years,” Ninja said in his stream, according to a Forbes article.
Marvel Rivals is dominating video game charts in 2025 with an explosive debut with over 640,000 players on PC exclusively on Steam, according to a Jan. 13 article by PC Gamer. It's not just the iconic
star power of Marvel's characters that draws vast numbers of players. The superpowers behind the success of the game are innovative gameplay, fair monetization, and community engagement.
I grew up more of a Star Wars fan, but in recent years, Marvel has released many more prominent films and overshadowed Star Wars to an extent.
With the recent lack of Star Wars films or video games, I’ve gravitated toward Marvel and its comic book heroes.
We live in a digital age where gaming is more mainstream than ever, thanks to technological advancements, improved accessibility, popular streamers, and the growing social side of online gaming.
I think Marvel has to tap back into what made them so popular in the first place: elite storytelling and character development.
Writers and developers should stick to stories based on comic books while integrating their creative ideas. The muchanticipated film Captain America: Brave New World will be released on February 14. Marvel has continued offering high-budget projects and video games to entertain its fans for years.
Follow Blaze on Instagram @Blazedayton
PHOTO FROM MARVEL & NETEASE GAMES INC.