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OXNARD, Calif. — At 6am Wednesday, Juvenal Solano ran slowly along a cracked road adjacent to the strawberry and celery fields that clad this fertile spread in Ventura County, his eyes peeled for signs of trouble.
A creepy silence dangling in the morning. Usually, there were very few workers shuffling rows of strawberries up and down. Entrance gates to many local farms were closed and locked.
Still, Solano, director of the Mixteco Indigena Community Organising Project, felt relieved. The silence was better than the chaos that broke out on Tuesday when immigration agents stormed Oxnard fields and burned across communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
The organization, part of a wider, rapid response network that provides support and advice for workers targeting immigrant attacks, was caught off guard when it launched calls from residents reporting federal agents gathering nearby fields. Group leaders have confirmed that at least 35 people have been detained in the attack and say they are still trying to pinpoint accurate numbers.
Last week, Solano said the organization had received scattered reports from immigration authorities arresting undocumented residents. However, he said Tuesday marked a new level and scope of approach and scope as federal agents tried to access the fields and packaging routes. Solano, like other organizers, wonders what the next move will be like.
“If they don’t show up in the morning, they could show up in the afternoon,” Solano said. “We’re going to be careful about everything that’s going on.”
Immigration and customs enforcement and border patrol agents have appeared at food production sites from the Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley, but much of their activities are centered around the Oxnard Plains. Maureen McGuire, chief executive of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, said federal agents have visited five packing facilities and at least five farms in the area. The agent also stopped people on her way to work, she said.
In many cases, farm owners refused to grant access to agents without a judicial warrant, according to McGuire and community leaders.
California, which grows more than a third of the country’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of fruits and nuts, has long relied on undocumented labor that has a tendency to crops. According to UC Merced Research, seasonally imported immigrants through the controversial H-2A visa program are imported seasonally, while farm workers are imported seasonally, while immigrants are immigrants. Many have lived in California for years, taking root and starting a family.
Juvenal Solano, with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organization project, said Tuesday’s raid at Ventura County Farm Fields showed a dramatic escalation of tactics.
(Michael Owen Baker / for the era)
Until this week, California’s agricultural sector had largely escaped massive attacks deployed in urban areas by the Department of Homeland Security. It looked very calm as California farmers – many of them avid supporters of Donald Trump – vowed to massive deportation of undocumented workers.
Many people were hoping that Trump would find a way to protect his employees. It was noted that without sufficient workers, food would rot in the fields and surge in grocery prices.
But this week brought another message. Asked about enforcement measures in food-producing regions, Tom Homan, the chief advisor on Trump’s border policy, said growers should hire legal workers.
“We have a program. You can come and let people come and do the job,” he said. “So please work with Ice and work with us [U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services]and hire legal workers. It is illegal to knowingly hire an illegal foreigner. ”
Strawberry Fields, Ventura County, had far fewer workers Wednesday, the day after federal agents targeted the area for immigrant attacks.
(Michael Owen Baker / for the era)
Democrats, two U.S. Senators in California, issued a joint statement Wednesday denounced the farm attack, saying targeting deported farmers would harm businesses and families.
“It would be unfair and pointless to target hardworking farm workers and their families who have been doing broken jobs in this field for decades,” Senator Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff said in a statement.
The California Farm Bureau also issued a statement, warning that continued execution would disrupt production.
“We want to be very clear. California agriculture relies on its workforce and we cherish it,” said Brian Little, senior director of policy advocacy at the California Farm Bureau. “We are still early in the season and have limited harvesting activity, but that will increase quickly. If federal immigration enforcement activities continue in this direction, it will become increasingly difficult to produce, process and put food on grocery store shelves.”
MICOP executive director Arcenio Lopez said he is particularly concerned about the possibility of Indigenous workers being detained as they cannot read, write, write, or speak English or Spanish, or speak only Indigenous languages. The organisation’s leaders suspect that many of those detained Tuesday are indigenous people and are rushing to find them before signing documents for voluntary deportation they don’t understand. They encourage anyone arrested to call a hotline where they provide legal assistance.
Rob Roy, president of the Ventura County Agricultural Association, said he has been warning growers since November. He said he knows many people will ask for a search warrant. But it still makes undocumented workers vulnerable on their way in and out of work.
“All in the end, I think they’re pretty safe on the farm and the building,” Roy said. “But when they leave their jobs they are very worried.”
VC Defensesa organizer Elaine Yompian said he is urging his family to stay home if possible to avoid exposure.
“We actually contacted many families who contacted us and if you may not work today, please don’t go,” Yongpian said, adding that they can provide limited support to their families through the donations they receive.
Families whose loved ones are in custody have struggled to understand what’s coming next, she said.
“People are scary. They don’t know at what point they will be targeted,” Yongpian said. “The story of them taking criminals and taking bad people off the streets is completely wrong. They’re taking working class people who are just trying to do it.”
This article is part of the Times Equity Report initiative funded by the James Irvine Foundation, which examines the challenges faced by low-income workers and efforts to address economic disparities in California.
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