California Citrus Mutual President and CEO Casey Creamer began hearing reports last week that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were conducting sweeps of immigrant workers across Kern County, causing panic among many in the agricultural community.
While he was told initially CBP was carrying out “targeted enforcement arrests of individuals involved in smuggling” – which the agency reiterated to Agri-Pulse – it was unclear why the action was conducted by CBP and not U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An ICE spokesperson confirmed that it had no involvement in the operation.
“We have a lot of respect for law enforcement, but I think there's standards and professionalism that I think there's questions about whether those standards of professionalism were upheld in this particular situation,” Creamer said.
The raid led to widespread farmworker absence across citrus operations, one of the county’s few commodities currently in harvest. Creamer said he had calls from operators who had anywhere from 25% to 85% of the workforce missing over the few days following initial CBP sweeps.
He added that it felt like CBP agents were “targeting agricultural workers versus some sort of targeted enforcement area,” stopping people on their way to work or at carpool pick-up spots.
Facebook posts from the CBP El Centro Sector detailed several arrests made in Kern County, referring to the operation as “Return to Sender.” The El Centro Sector also commented to one user that there would be more operations to come in Fresno and Sacramento, though CBP has not officially confirmed whether this is accurate.
CBP did not confirm how many individuals were arrested nor if other border patrol raids would be carried out in the coming weeks.
While Creamer said people have for the most part returned to work, United Farm Workers Communications Director Antonio De Loera wrote to Agri-Pulse that they are following the situation closely after a UFW member was detained on their way home from work.
“Despite their official statements, there is nothing we have seen in their actions that suggests they conducted anything other than random sweeps in public places, including gas stations, highways and parking lots, profiling Spanish-speaking Latino workers to stop them and ask about their immigration status,” De Loera wrote.
He also worried that the looming threat of future raids, which he said UFW is anticipating under the incoming Trump administration, will lead to farmworkers becoming afraid to speak out against poor working conditions or low wages.
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De Loera said he hopes lobbying interests won’t use the raids to expand guest worker programs to replace undocumented employees, and that UFW will oppose legislation that attempts to expand the H2A program rather than obtaining legal status for undocumented workers.
State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Bakersfield, issued a statement on Thursday calling for trust building between law enforcement and immigrant communities, both for safety and to encourage the local ag economy.
She asked that federal law enforcement be diligent and work “collaboratively with local stakeholders—farmers, immigrant communities, and others—to create solutions that reflect the needs and values of our community.”
Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., said in a statement that he too received fearful calls from constituents and "urged the Biden Administration—and future administrations—to ensure CBP prioritizes targeting criminals rather than those responsible for producing our nation’s food supply."
“We urgently need common sense immigration reform that creates a pathway to earned legal status for hardworking individuals contributing to our economy while ensuring the removal of those who threaten the safety of our communities, and I am looking forward to working on new legislation to combat these issues in Congress,” he wrote.
Manuel Cunha, Nisei Farmers League president, said he’s never seen a raid like this carried out so close to an presidential inauguration. He assumes it was a play to make things “as disruptive as they possibly can before the new administration comes in.” He was told that CBP picked up roughly 80 individuals and released 12, although their employment status was unclear.
Cunha agreed with Creamer that the choice of public spaces for the sweep was concerning and a strange choice for CBP. He added that NFL is working on creating plastic cards that write out immigrants' rights in English and Spanish, so farmworkers can carry them with them at all times.
All this comes after California Attorney General Rob Bonta made several appearances over the last month to publicize the rights of immigrants across the state. He recently issued revamped government guidance suggesting ways the Agricultural Labor Relations Board can respond to immigration enforcement, reflecting the state’s concern about the incoming administration.
Though his office said it is aware of and monitoring the situation, there’s little the state can do as SB 54 restricts state and local authorities from interfering with federal immigration enforcement.
Creamer said Citrus Mutual is committed to advocating for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a bill that would expand the H-2A visa program and provide a path to legal status for existing farmworkers who are in the country illegally. The bill has never made it through the Senate.
"Everybody wants to be able to do a legal, workable system so we can continue to do what everybody needs us to do, which provide healthy food on the table," Creamer said.
This article was corrected to clarify Congressman Valadao's statement.
