BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Worker shortages, detained union members, and an American citizen held for hours.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation swept through parts of the San Joaquin Valley last week, sowing chaos in a region where much of the nation’s fresh fruits and vegetables are grown by a workforce that is overwhelmingly Latino and undocumented.
Employee attendance at some farms plummeted as about five dozen agents carried out a three-day operation. One Kern County orchard, for example, reported just five of its 30 contracted employees showed up during the sweep – putting a pinch on the mandarin harvest.
“At a time when many local farms are already facing labor shortages, disruptions like these adversely affect local agricultural production,” the Kern County Farm Bureau stated in response to the sweeps.
Schools in the Delano Unified School District, meanwhile, notified worried families that schools were a safe place for students.
“That doesn’t mean the fear isn’t out there. All you have to do is take a look on social media,” said Joseph Hunter, the district’s director of safety and security. He noted that while attendance rates were “very good” overall as students returned from winter break, a handful of families decided to keep their children home.
In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said their jurisdiction extends to the Oregon border. Communities are fearful operations could take place again in Fresno and Sacramento, following a social media statement from the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector.
The agency’s comment fueled advocates' fears that immigration sweeps could become more common under a new administration led by President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on promises of mass deportations and will assume office on Monday.
Border patrol typically limits its activities to within a hundred miles of a U.S. border, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement – another branch of the Department of Homeland Security – is usually charged with enforcing immigration in the country’s interior.
But experts noted that the 100-mile guideline is more of a suggestion than a concrete policy.
“The border patrol often ignores that 100-mile boundary and rejects any geographic limitation on the agency’s authority,” said Bruno Huizar of the California Immigrant Policy Center.
During a press briefing on Thursday, Antonio De Loera, spokesman for the United Farm Workers union, reported that two of the union’s members were detained, neither of whom had criminal records. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to KVPR’s questions about the criminal records of those arrested or detained.
“It’s clear that border patrol is feeling emboldened, and I believe this is the kind of thing that unfortunately we’ll be seeing more of over the next four years,” De Loera said.
Border security officials said the arrests were targeted, and touted the capture of two alleged child rapists along with the seizure of more than 30 pounds of marijuana. In total, the agency said its operation resulted in 78 arrests. Community groups dispute the number of arrests, and some who were detained, were either deported or released with pending court dates, according to reports.
De Loera says the UFW right now is focusing on informing undocumented immigrants of their rights, while minimizing the spread of fear unnecessarily.
“We believe that fear itself is one of the worst consequences of this sort of operation,” he said.
Some undocumented immigrants who refused to engage with border patrol agents who didn’t hold court-issued warrants were eventually let go, according to de Loera. “So, there is hope.”
David Valadao, a House Republican who represents parts of Kern, Tulare and Kings counties, called for transparency from immigration enforcement agencies in light of the disruption caused in the Valley.
“I think we can all agree known criminals should be expelled from the United States, but it is crucial that future operations are communicated clearly to avoid causing any further alarm among our farmworkers,” Valadao said in a statement this week.
Valadao has long called for immigration reform.
‘It was racial profiling’
Advocates say unusual tactics were employed by border patrol agents. In the days since the operation, a clearer picture has emerged.
Detainments by border patrol officials didn’t just extend to people without legal status. A video shared by TV outlet KGET on Monday showed a landscaper accusing border agents of slashing the tires of his truck in Bakersfield.
The driver identifies himself on video as a U.S. citizen. He tells the agent his passenger has an active immigration case. The agent then verbally threatens to smash the truck’s windows before arresting both the driver and passenger.
“I’m going to have to break the window. It’s your fault,” the agent says on video.
The driver, identified in news reports as Ernesto Campos, was detained for four hours until federal agents confirmed his citizenship, he told KGET. The passenger remains in custody.
“There’s a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety for everyone with an undocumented loved one, which is a significant portion of the Latino community in Kern County,” De Loera, the UFW spokesman, said.
For days, social media erupted with sightings and reports of agents arresting people on the side of the road or at businesses frequented by farmworkers.
Sara Fuentes, an employee at a Chevron gas station in north Bakersfield, was surprised to see agents in plain clothes questioning customers. Fuentes says the agents appeared to single out Spanish-speaking customers engaged in agricultural work.
“It was racial profiling,” she told KVPR, after around a dozen men were detained outside the station.
The station’s owner ejected border patrol agents from the store, and Fuentes says business has slowed to a crawl in the days since the sweep.
‘I’ve got to be here for them’
The incidents rippled widely across the Central Valley. They sparked day-long protests that gathered hundreds, and mobilized community groups to offer legal services and support for immigrants who may be at risk of deportation.
The immigration detainments came too close for comfort for people like Osbaldo, who only wanted to go by his first name for his safety. He helped organize a mass protest in north Fresno last Sunday, where people showed up in droves to support immigrants.
Osbaldo is protected by a work authorization program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, but says that the immigration sweeps instilled fear about his future. The future of DACA is also uncertain as it is held up in courts. The previous Trump administration tried to end the program.
“When you see stuff like this happening, it just hits home,” he said.
The sweeps caught residents in the Valley by surprise, but many relied on social media for updates, and even to document encounters or sightings of border patrol.
Flor Martinez Saragoza, an activist originally from San Jose, said she was concerned popular social media apps like TikTok would be shut down in the U.S. because it was a tool farmworkers and the larger community relied on heavily during the sweeps. On the flip side, advocates say that misinformation about border patrol sightings were also a concern and further kept people fearful of leaving their homes.
“Social media is like the media, but we’re in control. We’re able to showcase and narrate what’s really happening” Saragoza said.
Saragoza attended the Fresno protest along with one held days earlier in Bakersfield. She said she wants to support immigrants and their rights, especially in the face of a Trump administration promising mass deportation.
She said farmworkers, “deserve people to be out here standing up for them.”
Miroku Nemeth, a teacher who lives in Fresno County, says he has taught students in rural parts of the county for decades. His work has taken him to places like Coalinga, Huron, Avenal and Mendota. In those places, he said, he’s met immigrant families “who are good people.”
“I’m sick of seeing them demonized, and dehumanized by hate-mongering politicians, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans,” Nemeth said.
The immigration sweeps pushed some people who had not been politically-active before to step outside and protest. But they are also re-energizing immigrant activists who for decades have pushed to end deportations and for comprehensive immigration reform.
Cities like Fresno were a hot-bed for activism years ago around ending law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama Administration. Nemeth says activism dropped off in the last few years, but he sees it returning now.
He said the immigration movement is also finding allies within those who have pushed for an end to the war in Gaza, a movement that took over college campuses and likely tipped election outcomes.
“Just like they’re coming for the community I love – my religious community, the Muslim community [and] the Palestinians, the Gazans – they’re coming for my Mexican, and Salvadoran and Guatemalan and all these other communities that I have a lot of love for. I’ve got to be here for them,” Nemeth said.
