Hiding in the countryside – agricultural workers who are afraid of staying in California shadows

Women are still leaning on the knees between the infinite rows of fruit bushes, almost hidden from the view.

“Are you from the ice?” One of the women, an agricultural worker in a hat and a purple bandan, asks us fearfully.

After we made sure that we were not with us immigration and customs execution (ICE), which has raid nearby farms in the last week and arrested employees, she straightens her back, lifting the dirt a little.

“Have you seen any ice vans? Are there cars there?” She asks, still not sure if we can trust and she can appear.

A woman not documented migrant from Mexico has chosen berries in Oxnard, California two years ago, since arriving in the US. It is a city that is proud of being the “world strawberry capital”.

When her work ended on Wednesday, she and her colleagues hid in the countryside, waiting for her to be welcomed by a friend and not knowing if it is safe to go to the parking lot.

The previous day, ice agents visited nine farms in the Oxnarda area, says local activists, but they were denied entry without searching warrants, and instead lifted people in the nearby streets, arresting 35.

Job raids are part of President Donald Trump’s goal of arresting 3,000 non -documents per day. On the campaign, he had promised to deport noncitizens, accused of violent crimes, a promise that received widespread support even among some Spanish.

But there was a public reaction and street protests in Los Angeles, which sometimes became violent, encouraging him to dispute the military forces to the second largest city in the US.

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

“We don’t want to leave the house anymore. We don’t want to go to the store. We are afraid they will catch us.”

Large -scale raids on workplaces in the heart of California have not been seen in the heart of agriculture for the last 15 years, says Lucas Zucker, organizer of the central coastal community of California.

But it seems to have changed last week.

“They only wiped through immigrant communities, such as Oxnard, searching for anyone they can find to meet their political quotas,” he says.

More than 40% of US agricultural workers have not documented immigrants, According to the US Department of Agriculture 2022In the area in California, more than 75% are not documented, According to the University of California, MercedIn the area

Farm and business raids that rely on the agricultural sector throughout California and throughout the country have increased this month.

The arrests have caused the fear of lack of America’s food supply if migrants are arrested or forced to hide for fear of coming to work.

This effect is not lost in the White House. Despite the winners of the election after the promise of mass deportations, Trump on Thursday acknowledged the difficult time when his suppression was caused by the agricultural sector.

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

He said in April that some migrants may be allowed to continue working in the US, provided they have an official employer recommendation and that they first leave the US.

One raid score on Tuesday in Oxnard, in the municipality of 60 miles (100 km) from the center of Los Angeles, is shown in the video posted by the local flower trader on Instagram.

The short clip shows A person running in a wide field of crops through a thick morning fog fog because the agents give chase on legs and trucks. He then sees that he falls on the ground, between the rows of plants when the agents move to arrest him.

When the BBC visited Oxnard on Wednesday, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) truck was observed outside the freight company of organic production. The security guard insisted that their visit was not related to immigration saying, “It’s not ice. We would never let the ice here.”

Many tractors and trucks were sitting down in a idle surrounded by agricultural land, as an unknown number of employees chose to stay home.

The effect is the effect of Ripple on other companies. Watching his family from his family at the Mexican restaurant, Rakel Perez saw masked CBP agents trying to get into Boskovich farms, a vegetable and herb pack over the street.

Now, in her business, Casa Grande Cafe is just one customer usually in a busy lunch hour because agricultural workers have stayed at home. She estimates that at least half of her ordinary customers are not documented.

“No one came today,” says her mother Paula Pérez. “We’re all on the sidelines.”

Rakel says she is now more worried about the future of the restaurant – serving Chilaquiles, Flan and other Mexican delicacies – than she was in Cowd at the time her customers continued to work as usual, maintaining the people with fresh food.

“They are not aware that it will have a domino effect,” she says about raids. Other surrounding companies that rely on agriculture are already affected. The nearby business purchase and the sale of wooden pallets are closed and also the local car mechanic.

“If strawberries or vegetables are not selected, it means nothing at home.

A migrant who sells a strawberry on the side of his truck, says that the raids have already been devastating both his business and the hope of becoming a legitimate population of the United States.

“Less people are traveling, and they buy less from me,” says óscar, who comes from Mexican Tlaxcala, and although not self -documented, 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 complete his immigration status, but when ice agents are now waiting outside the courtroom migrants who want to process documents, he is not sure what to do next.

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