ICE expands immigration raids into California’s agricultural heartland
Panic workers spread to California Agricultural Centers on Tuesday because the Federal immigration officials, who had greatly avoided major implementation in agricultural communities in the first months of the Trump administration, reported that they had emerged from the mid -coast to the San Joaquin Valley in farm areas and packaging houses.
“Today, we see an increase in the chaotic presence of immigration sanctions, especially in the border patrol, El “We see this in more than one area.”
Officials refused to verify certain places, but he said that implementation actions were carried out in the southern region of the state. A large number of immigrants advocacy group defenders, phones from more than one district calls, videos and texts, he said.
In the early hours of the morning, Times examined a video showing a worker passing through a area under the fog under the fog, at least one agent pursuit of pedestrian and a border patrol truck competing along a adjacent dirt road. Finally, the worker was caught.
In Tulare County, immigrant agents near the Richgrove community appeared near an area where farm workers chose wildberries and caused some workers to escape. In Fresno district, workers reported federal agents in the fields near Kingsburg, some of whom were in border patrol trucks.
And organizers in Oxnard in Ventura district, staged near the fields and entering a packaging house in Boskovich Farms, said the federal immigration authorities responded to more than one call.
In a statement published on Thursday, Boskovich Farms said that the company “did not authorize federal immigration authorities to enter the packaging house or other facilities, or that the federal authorities did not enter any of the Boskovich Farms facilities”. The company did not respond to more requests for comments.
Hazel Davalos, the group, said the reports of migration and customs enforcement agents trying to access multiple farms in Oxnard, but in most cases the entrance was rejected.
Strer said that he has not yet knowledge about the number of people detained in raids, but the fear between the workers is widespread. At least half of the 255,700 farm workers in California are undocumented, UC MERCED Research.
Strat, “They will be afraid to take their children to school, will be afraid to go to graduation, will be afraid to go to the market,” he said. “It will be damaged.”
Maureen McGuire, General Manager of Ventura District Farm Office, said that immigrant agents visited five packaging plants and at least five farms in the fertile Oxnard Plain. They tried to enter the Glass House Farms, a cannabis greenhouse, but the owners reported that they were private property and turned them down. He then said that agents were moved to the environment by trying to reach the properties without judicial warrants.
Representatives also stopped people on their way to work, dedi he said.
McGuire said that he had received a call from breeders extending on behalf of the workers who were afraid of leaving the fields and asked if he was safe. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t get them,” he said. “Really sad and disappointing and illegal.”
The expansion of rural communities follow the coordinated raids in the urban areas of Los Angeles District, where authorities target home development stores, restaurants and clothing manufacturers. The enforcement action launched protest waves and responded by sending hundreds of maritime and thousands of national guards.
Two democratic congress members representing the Ventura region, representatives Julia Brownley and Salud Carbajal made a statement condemning the raids in Oxnard.
“We received disturbing reports about ice application actions in Ventura district, including Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo in Ventura district, where the agents stopped vehicles, moved near the schools and tried to enter the agricultural features and facilities in the Oxnard Plain”. “These actions are completely unfair, deeply harmful and asks serious questions about the tactics of the agency and respect for the necessary process.”
“These raids are not about public security. Fear is about stopping. These are hardworking people and families, an important part of the Ventura district. Our local economy, California and the country, as a whole, are the backbone of our men and women, our society and our society.”
Farmer defenders said that the raids on Tuesday came this year despite the judicial decision due to a border patrol action in Kern County.
Aclu lawyers representing united farm workers and inhabitants of five Kern districts filed a lawsuit against the President of the Ministry of Internal Security and the US border patrol officials by claiming that he was a three -day raid in the South San Joaquin Valley at the beginning of January.
Jenifer Jennifer Thursston, the California Eastern Region Court of the United States, said in a 8 -page decision that the evidence presented by lawyers of American Civil Freedom Union lawyers considering people who are not reasonable people, while violating human constitutional rights and then determining the risk of flight, he said that he established a mold and practice ”.
Thursston’s decision required the border patrol to present detailed documents of stops or unsecured arrests in Central Valley and show open guidance and training for the agencies in the law.
This article is part of Times’ Stock reporting initiative– financed by James Irvine FoundationTo investigate the difficulties faced by low -income workers and efforts to address Economic division of California.
