BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Six days into the new year, the atmosphere at citrus orchards in the San Joaquin Valley was almost festive. Spanish music blared as farmworkers picked fruits. They sang along, racing to fill large bins with as many mandarins as possible.
The fuller the bins, the bigger the paycheck.
But on Jan. 7, and the days after, morale at California farms dipped to an all-time low.
“All of that is gone now,” said Alejandra, a Bakersfield farmworker who declined to share her last name because she is not a U.S. citizen. “People are working but no one’s playing music, no one’s singing.”
“There’s lots of fear in the fields,” she added in Spanish.
In the weeks since agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched a surprise raid on Kern County, anxious farmworkers say they’re facing an impossible choice: Stay home and miss a paycheck, or show up to work, when doing so could land them in the hands of deportation agents.
The surprise immigration enforcement raid rippled through Kern County and the larger San Joaquin Valley. While agents did not appear to raid individual farms, they targeted immigrants on their way to and from work, in parking lots and at shopping centers.
Officially, border officials say their operation led to nearly 80 arrests. Community groups are skeptical of the figure, and say the number is much higher.
Since then, targeted arrests have taken place in other Valley counties, according to news reports. They mirror arrests sweeping other parts of the U.S. as Department of Homeland Security officials formally took their positions after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Often, arrests have been conducted by undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in unmarked vehicles.
‘Shame on Congress’
Advocates, growers and farmworkers alike are concerned that the January immigration enforcement operation could become a blueprint for how Trump aims to fulfill his campaign promise of mass deportations.
But farm groups are gearing up to challenge Trump and also put forward their own solutions – some of which are not new. Some are also casting blame on Congress’ failure to act on immigration reform for decades.
Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League, said disruptions to farmworkers and the agriculture sector are unnecessary. His organization has worked on behalf of growers in the San Joaquin Valley for decades and has pushed for immigration reform and other policies that would benefit the state’s legion of field workers without legal status.
Cunhua noted that farmworkers pay into social security, but due to their status, won’t benefit from it.
“They're 70 years old, and they work 35 years and they’ve paid into social security,” Cunha said. “They don't have a legal document, and now you are going to deport them because of their status? Shame on the Congress, both sides of the aisle.”
Cunha is in favor of legal work authorization for immigrants already in the United States who meet certain conditions, such as health screenings and criminal background checks. Cunha said this would bring more transparency into the agriculture system, and would lessen the fears of farmworkers.
He says the ongoing immigration enforcement operations harken back to those of decades past, when farmworkers trying to evade immigration authorities often met deadly fates.
“When [border patrol agents] left Bakersfield, they left it in a turmoil,” Cunha said of the most recent raids.
‘All Americans should be alarmed’
Valley farmworkers have not returned to normalcy since the surprise arrests began. But many have returned to farms, as widespread reports of absences swirl.
“As afraid as farmworkers are, they need to pay the bills,” spokesperson Antonio De Loera said. “You may not know if you’re going to bump into border patrol or ICE on the road when you leave your house, but you know the rent is due.”
While border patrol officials touted the capture of two alleged child rapists and large seizures of marijuana during their Valley raid, advocates and people who directly encountered the agents noted the sweeps appeared to rely on racial profiling tactics.
Agents detained dozens of workers who had no criminal histories, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Two of those arrested were members of the United Farm Workers union. They are now in Mexico.
The disruption did not go unnoticed by California farmers, who largely decried the federal operation. California farm officials say, while its workforce continues to show up, they are aware of the unease unleashed by immigration agents.
“We understand the uncertainty some might feel right now, and we want to be absolutely clear: California’s farmers stand with you. We respect you. We value you. And we will do everything in our power to ensure that agriculture remains a place where you are safe and supported,” Bryan Little, senior director of policy advocacy at the California Farm Bureau, said.
The bureau represents more than 26,000 farm and ranch families in the state.
Others, like California Citrus CEO Casey Cramer echoed that sentiment.
“Ultimately, all Americans should be alarmed at the direction these raids have taken,” Creamer wrote in an op-ed for the Fresno Bee. “We owe a debt of gratitude to farmworkers who labor in the fields so that the rest of us can enjoy fresh produce year-round.”
From ‘essential’ to deported?
Farmworkers are contending with their future under the new Trump administration.
De Loera, of the United Farm Workers, noted that Trump himself declared agricultural workers as “essential” during his first term in office, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“How can you call them ‘essential’ one day, and say you’re going to deport them the next,” he said. “We reject the hypocrisy of wanting to profit from people’s labor, but not wanting to allow those people to become full members of the society they contribute so much to.”
Just how much of the agricultural labor force in California lacks legal status stems anywhere from half to up to 75%. The latter is a figure from the UC Merced Community and Labor Center.
The center’s director, Edward Flores, says the position farmworkers are in underscores the fragile state of California’sthe state’s ag economy.
“It’s actually very disruptive to get rid of a bunch of people. You can’t grow a business if you’re losing workers and you’re losing consumers,” he told KVPR.
He says growers who supported Trump for president are reckoning with some of his policies that could harm their business, and drive up prices for consumers at grocery stores.
“For many of the staple items that American households depend on – eggs, bread, milk – a disruption in agricultural production is going to cause prices to go higher at a time when concern with inflation has been one of the most salient issues among voting Americans,” he said.
In the meantime, Alejandra, the Bakersfield farmworker, says she’ll continue to work despite the threat of deportation looming over her, and some of the nation’s most productive fields.
“We have to go out and work, because the necessity is greater than the fear,” she says.