Hide in the fields – farm workers afraid of deportation in the shadows of California

The women are pressed stationary, kneeling between endless rows of fruit shrubs, almost hidden by the view.

“Are you from ice?” One of the women, a farmer’s hat and a purple bandana, asks us terribly.

After assuring her that we are not with US immigration and customs application (ICE), who has invaded nearby farms last week and arrest workers, she straightens her back, rising slightly from dirt.

“Have you seen any ice vans? Are there patrol cars?” she asks, she is still not sure if we can be trusted and show up.

A woman, an undocumented migrant from Mexico, chooses fruits in Oxnard, California since she arrived in the United States two years ago. This is a city that is proud of being the “strawberry capital of the world”.

As her work shift ended on Wednesday, she and her colleagues hid in the fields waiting to be taken by a friend and are not sure if it is safe to get into the parking lot.

On the previous day, nine farms in the Oxnard area were visited by ice agents, local activists say, but without the search orders, they were denied entry and instead took people on the nearby streets, arresting 35.

Workplace raids are part of President Donald Trump’s goal to arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day. On the track of the campaign, he vowed to deport non -iconic, accused of violent crimes, a promise that received widespread support, even among some Spaniards.

But in Los Angeles, there was a public twist and street protests, which sometimes turned into violence, which encouraged him to send controversially to the military in the second largest city in the United States.

“They treat us as criminals, but we only came here to work and have a better life,” says the woman who left her children behind in Mexico two years ago and hopes 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 will catch us.”

The large -scale raids of jobs in the agricultural Heartland in California have not been observed in the last 15 years, says Lucas Zucker, the organizer of the Community in the Central Coast area of ​​California.

But that seems to have changed over the past week.

“They are just swept through immigrant communities as Oxnard indiscriminately, looking for anyone they can find to meet their politically managed quotas,” he says.

More than 40% of US farmers are undocumented immigrants, According to a 2022 report by the US Department of AgricultureS In California, more than 75% are undocumented, According to the University of California, MercedS

The raids in farms and businesses that rely on the agricultural industry throughout California and across the country have increased this month.

The arrests caused fears of a shortage of food delivery in America if migrants were arrested or forced to hide, afraid to come to work.

This impact is not lost on the White House. Although he won the election decisively after the promise of the mass deportations, Trump on Thursday acknowledged that the difficult moment at which his repression was inflicting on the agricultural sector.

“Our farmers are hurt badly. You know, they have very good workers. They have worked for them for 20 years. They are not citizens, but they turned out, you know, great.”

In April, he said that some migrants may be authorized to continue working in the United States, provided they have an official recommendation from their employer and they first leave the United States.

The result of an attack on Tuesday in Oxnard, a municipality of 60 miles (100 km) from the center of Los Angeles, can be seen in a video posted on Instagram by a local flower merchant.

The short clip shows A man running in a huge field of cultures, through a fog of a thick morning fog, as agents pursue on foot and in trucks. He is then seen falling to the ground, among the ranks of plants as the agents move to arrest him.

When on Wednesday, BBC visits Oxnard, a US Customs and Border Protection truck (CBP) was seen parked in front of an organic production company. The guard insisted that their visit was not related to immigration, saying, “This is not ice. We would never let ice here.”

Many tractors and trucks were sitting in idle, surrounded by acres of agricultural land, with an unknown number of workers choosing to stay home.

The impact is to have pulsation effects on other businesses. Looking from the Mexican restaurant of his family, Raquel Perez saw CBP masked agents trying to enter Boskovich Farms, a vegetable and herbs package on the other side of the street.

Now her business, Casa Grande Cafe, has only one client during a normally busy lunch hour, because workers in agriculture are home. She estimates that at least half of her normal clientele are not documented.

“Nobody came in today,” says her mother Paula Perez. “We’re all on the edge.”

Raquel says she is now more concerned about the future of the restaurant – serving chilakili, Flanski and other Mexican delicacies – than it was during Covid, when her customers continued their work as usual, maintaining the nation, provided with fresh foods.

“They are not aware of Domino’s effect that it will have,” she says of the attacks. Other companies around it that rely on agriculture are already affected. The neighboring business, which buys and sells wooden pallets, is a closed and local car mechanic too.

“If strawberries or vegetables are not chosen, it means that there will be nothing in the packages. Which means there will be no trucks to take things.”

A migrant who sells strawberries from his truck on the side of the road says raids have already had a detrimental effect – both for his business and his hopes of becoming a legal resident of the United States.

“Few people go on trips and buy less than I am,” says Oscar, who comes from the Mexican state of Puscalla and, while underdeveloped, there are children who were born in the United States.

“I’m afraid, but I can’t stop working. I have to secure my family,” he says.

Óscar says he has worked to finalize his immigration status, but with ice agents who are now waiting for external courts for migrants who want to process documents, he is not sure what to do further.

“There are not many ways to be legal here.”