Homing in the Fields – Farm Workers who fear deportation to stay in the shadow of California

Women are up to the fixed, knees between endless rows of fruit shrubs, almost hidden from glance.

“Are you out of ice?” One of the women, a working farmer in a hat and a purple bandana, is scared by us.

Referring her to the fact that we did not with the immigration and customs execution of customs (ICE), which has been raid in nearby farms and arresting workers over the past week, she corrects her back, rising a little.

“Did you see what kind of minibuses? Are there patrol machines there?” She asks, still uncertainly if you can trust us and it may appear.

A woman, an undocumented migrant from Mexico, chooses berries to Oksnard, California since his arrival in the United States two years ago. It is a city that boasts the “strawberry capital of the world”.

When her working change ended on Wednesday, she and her staff hid in the fields, waiting for him to pick up a friend and not sure if it is safe to go into the parking lot.

On the previous day, nine farms in the region of Oksnard were visited by glaciers, local activists say, but without a search warrants, they were denied entry, and instead took people to the nearby streets, arresting 35.

Workplace raids are part of the goal of President Donald Trump – arrest 3,000 immigrants per day. On the path of the company, he promised to deport the unprepared guides, accused of violent crimes, a promise that received extensive support even among some Hispanic.

But in Los -Angeles, there was a public reaction and street protests, which sometimes became fierce, which pushed him to confidently send the military to the second largest city in the US.

“They treat us as criminals, but we came to work only here and improved life,” says a woman who left her children behind Mexico two years ago and hoped to return to them next year.

“We no longer want to leave the house. We don’t want to go to the store. We’re afraid they caught us.”

Large -scale job raids in California’s agricultural heart have not been seen in the last 15 years, says Lucas Zucker, organizer of society in the central region of California.

But it seems to have changed last week.

“They just sweep on immigrants such as Oksnard, not designs, seeking those they can find to meet their politically managed quotas,” he says.

More than 40% of US agricultural workers are unregistered immigrants, According to a report from the US Ministry of Agriculture 2022. In California, more than 75% are undocumented, According to California University, Merced.

Raids on farms and enterprises that rely on the agricultural industry across California and across the country have increased this month.

The arrests have caused fears to a shortage of food when migrants were arrested or forced to hide, afraid to come to work.

This influence was not lost in the White House. Despite the election victory, firmly after promising mass deportations, Trump acknowledged on Thursday that he was a difficult time of repression by the agricultural sector.

“Our farmers are very sore. You know, they have very good workers. They have worked for 20 years. They are not citizens, but they were, you know, great.”

In April, he said that some migrants may be allowed to continue working in the US, provided they had an official recommendation from the employer and that they leave the United States for the first time.

The result of one raid on Tuesday in Oknard, a municipality of 60 miles (100 km) from the Los -Andgeles Center, can be seen in the video posted on Instagram by a local flower merchant.

The short clip shows A man who works in a wide field of cultures, through a strip with a thick morning fog, when the agents chase and in the trucks. Then it is seen as it falls to the ground, among the rows of plants, when the agents move to arrest it.

When the BBC visited Oxnard on Wednesday, a US Customs and Border Protection truck (CBP) was spotted, which was parked outside organic products. The guard insisted that their visit was not related to immigration, saying, “This is not ice. We will never let the ice here.”

Many tractors and trucks were idle in the surrounding hectares of agricultural land, as an unknown number of workers decided to stay at home.

The impact has a ripple on other enterprises. Watching his family’s Mexican restaurant, Rakel Perez saw CBP agents trying to enter Boskovich, vegetable and grass packs across the road.

Now her business, Casa Grande Cafe, has only one client in a usually strenuous dining hour because farm workers are home. She estimates that she has at least half of her usual customers without documents.

“Nobody came today,” says her mother Paul Perez. “We’re all on the border.”

Rockel says she is now more concerned about the future restaurant – service Chilaquiles, FLAN and other Mexican delicacies – what she was during COVID when her customers continued her work as usual, supporting the nation with fresh food.

“They do not understand what the dominance effect will have,” she says of the raids. Other companies around it, which are counting on agriculture have already suffered. A related business for buying and selling wooden pallets is closed as well as a local car mechanic.

“If strawberries or vegetables are not selected, it means that there will be nothing in the packaging. It means there will be no trucks that could not take things.”

The migrant who sold strawberries from his truck on the road side says the raids have already had a devastating effect – both on his business and hope to become a legal resident of the United States.

“Less people go on trips and they buy less from me,” says óscar, who comes from the Mexican state of Tkalak and, while in the abnormalization, there are children born in the US.

“I’m afraid, but I can’t stop going to work. I have to provide my family,” he says.

Óscar says he is working to finalize his immigration status, but when the glaciers are waiting for the borders of the migrants who seek to process the documents, he is not sure what to do next.

“There are many ways to be legal.”