‘The fields were lonely’: Migratory raids send hail across rural California | Immigration news

Los Angeles, California – Recent raids by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a rural California county have sparked fear in immigrant communities as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

Customs and Border Protection says the operation in Kern County, which took place over three days in early January, resulted in the arrest of 78 people. The United Farm Workers (UFW) union says it believes the number is closer to 200.

“The fields were almost isolated the day after the raids,” a 38-year-old undocumented agricultural worker named Alejanda, who declined to give her last name, said of the aftermath of the raids.

She explained that many workers stayed at home out of fear. “At this time of year, the orchards are usually full of people, but I felt like I was alone when I went back to work.”

Workers and local organizations like the UFW view the raids as a shot across the bow from immigration enforcement agencies ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

His second term as president is expected to herald a new era of tightened restrictions and deportation efforts.

While the number of people detained represents a small part of the hundreds of thousands Undocumented workers To support California’s agricultural sector, the concerns stemming from such raids extend far beyond those arrested.

“On Wednesday (the day after the raids), I stayed home after work. “I barely left my house,” Alejanda said, adding that she kept her five-year-old son home from day care rather than risk driving to drop him off.

“Everyone is talking about what happened. Everyone is scared, including me. In fact, I haven’t seen any of the agents myself, but you still feel nervous.

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In the wake of a presidential campaign in which he routinely portrayed undocumented immigrants as “criminals” and “animals,” Trump will likely try to make good on his promise to implement the “largest deportation program” in the country’s history on his first day in office.

About 11 million people live undocumented in the United States, some of whom have worked in the country for decades, building families and communities.

The January arrests in Kern County appear to be the first large-scale Border Patrol raid in California since Trump won the November election, raising speculation about the potential impact of the January arrests in Kern County. Mass deportations On migrant communities and economic sectors that depend on their work.

About 50 percent of California’s agricultural workforce is made up of undocumented immigrants.

In California, undocumented status has been cited as a constant source of concern for workers — as well as a lever for employers, who often pay these workers lower wages and give them Less protection In the fields.

But Alejanda says workplace raids like the one in Kern County were not common in the region.

“I’ve been here for five years and I’ve never faced anything like this,” she said, noting that workers had been detained as they left the fields to return home.

CBP said in a statement that the operation, dubbed “Return to Sender,” targeted undocumented people with criminal backgrounds and ties to criminal organizations.

#WeFeedYou pic.twitter.com/8e6GE9RRkK

– United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) January 11, 2025

The raids were conducted by agents from CBP’s El Centro sector, located near the Mexico-Southern California border, more than a five-hour drive from the site of the raids.

“El Centro Sector takes all border threats seriously,” Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino said in a news release. “Our area of ​​responsibility extends from the US-Mexico border northward, as dictated by the mission and threat, all the way to the Oregon Line,” he added.

Antonio de Loera Prost, a UFW spokesman, said the operation shows that agencies like CBP are likely to become more aggressive with Trump in office.

He also took issue with CBP’s characterization of the raids as focused on people with criminal records, saying the operation cast a wide net and highlighted people who looked like farmworkers.

Two of the detainees were members of the labor union, and the organization described them as fathers who had lived in the area for more than 15 years.

“By operating more than 300 miles north of the Mexican border, and conducting this apparently untargeted sweep based on profiling on their own initiative and authority, the Border Patrol has demonstrated that it is clearly emboldened by a national political climate of hostility toward hard-working immigrant communities.” . De Loera Prost told Al Jazeera.

“It is certainly deeply concerning that this type of operation could become the new normal under the incoming Trump administration.”