Protests Spread Throughout Central Valley Following ICE Raids in Farmworker Communities

Hundreds of people are mobilizing in protest of raids by ICE in an operation termed, “Return to Sender,” which targeted several working-class communities across the Central Valley of California. ABC News reported that at least “78 undocumented migrants were detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents across Kern and Fresno Counties last week” although other reports put the number of arrests at around 200.

Border Patrol has stated they have targeted individuals involved in drug and human trafficking and “are not targeting local farms or fieldworkers,” writing on social media they were going after “bad people and bad things in Bakersfield,” while promising future operations in Fresno and Sacramento, the capitol of California. Locals on the ground, labor unions, and activist groups have rejected these claims however, stating that authorities have specifically targeted hard-working community members through racial profiling, “targeting anyone that’s Brown.”

The United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union stated that ICE had “randomly detained [farm-workers] while traveling home from work.” They went on to state that, “UFW union members are among those detained while traveling home from work yesterday in Kern County, CA. We are providing them and their families with support. Random actions like this are not meant to keep anyone safe; they are intended to terrorize hardworking people.”

A report from Cal-Matters wrote:

The Border Patrol conducted unannounced raids throughout Bakersfield on Tuesday, descending on businesses where day laborers and field workers gather. Agents in unmarked SUVs rounded up people in vans outside a Home Depot and gas station that serves a breakfast popular with field workers.

“It was profiling, it was purely field workers,” said Sara Fuentes, store manager of the local gas station. Fuentes said that at 9 a.m., when the store typically gets a rush of workers on their way to pick oranges, two men in civilian clothes and unmarked Suburbans started detaining people outside the store. “They didn’t stop people with FedEx uniforms, they were stopping people who looked like they worked in the fields.” Fuentes says one customer pulled in just to pump gas and agents approached him and detained him.

Fuentes has lived in Bakersfield all her life and says she’s never seen anything like it. In one instance, she said a man and woman drove up to the store together, and the man went inside. Border Patrol detained the man as he walked out, Fuentes said, and then demanded the woman get out of the vehicle. When she refused, another agency parked his vehicle behind the woman, blocking her car. Fuentes said it wasn’t until the local Univision station showed up that Border Patrol agents backed up their car and allowed the woman to leave.

Fuentes says none of the regular farm workers showed up to buy breakfast on Wednesday morning. “No field workers at all,” she said.

“They were stopping cars at random, asking people for papers. They were going to gas stations and Home Depot where day laborers gather,” said Antonio De Loera-Brust. “It’s provoking intense anxiety and a lot of fear in the community.”

The Fresno Bee reported that, “Immigration advocates [stated that] they’re hearing from families that their loved ones are located at the Golden State Annex Detention Center in Kern County as well as a detention in Imperial County near the U.S.-Mexico border.” The Golden State Annex has been the site of ongoing hunger and work strikes by detainees, in protest of unpaid labor and horrific conditions.

Large protests have quickly spread in response to the raids last week. In Bakersfield, “[s]everal hundred Kern County residents gathered at the corner of Ming Ave. and Wible Road to protest Border Patrol’s three-day operation.” The Rapid Response Network, a coalition of groups in the Bakersfield area, state that they will also continue to hold Know Your Rights trainings. One protester stated, “We’ve always been here, and we’re going to stand up for our students, our families, our workers. We stand by them and we’re not afraid. We’re not scared.”

The protests then spread to Fresno, one of the state’s largest cities, with hundreds rallying against the raids. One protester was quoted as stating, “We are not going to sit back anymore. All the youth, all these people that are here today and all these people across the country are going to fight back against deportation, against family separations, because enough has been enough.”

In 2006, massive student walkouts and wildcat strikes by immigrant workers beat back draconian anti-immigrant legislation. With the threat of mass deportations under Trump, the possibility of a new strike wave and growing protests is escalating.

photo: CVAction on Instagram