FRESNO, Calif. — Undocumented migrants in California have been left on edge after videos of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Bakersfield circulated on social media.
The have also been reports of Border Patrol agents being seen in Fresno County.
With pain in her eyes and tears running down her face, Xochitl Nunez, a Tulare County farmworker, explained that her community is in despair.
“I’ve never seen people not go to work before. This is the first time that I’ve seen people going to those lengths,” said Nunez.
On Tuesday, Nunez drove into Fresno to pick up red cards for herself and her coworkers, spelling out their rights if officers were to question them.
Frustrated, she says immigrants are being wrongly depicted as bad people.
“I have a son in the military. I have a son who’s an electrician. I have a daughter in college. I am a farm worker and I’m proud. I hurt my hand working in the field. But even like this, we still go to work. It’s not right that we’re living in this fear,” said Nunez.
At a press conference over the weekend, local leaders announced that 78 people were detained in both Fresno and Kern counties.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says that number could be closer to 192, with most of them being Mexican nationals.
The Border Patrol has claimed all detained have criminal histories, but local leaders say they’ve heard contradicting reports.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 10 years here. I think it’s starting to get a little more remnant of 2016 to 2020 during the first Trump administration,” said Matias Bernal, executive director of the Education & Leadership Foundation.
“But we had not seen this random level of enforcement as we did last week. We are predicting that it is likely to be escalated in the next couple of weeks after the inauguration.”
Agriculture isn’t the only industry impacted.
The trucking industry is also seeing large numbers of absences, as well as education, as many opt not to take their children to school.
Neindeep Singh, the executive director of the Jakara movement, which serves the Sikh and Punjabi community, says the fear is not isolated to Latinos.
“Specifically, here in Fresno, we have heard enforcement at truck stops and at ethnic groceries, places where they know large immigrant communities tend to congregate,” said Singh.
Immigrant service providers say misinformation and legal scams are now running rampant.
They’re also seeing new trends like undocumented people too afraid to go in for help themselves, sending family members with citizenship status in on their behalf.
Many now looking for help on how to prepare if deported, having difficult conversations about what would happen to their children.
“Planning for the worst. Who they want to leave their children with that are minors, in terms of a detention, so that they feel secure knowing that their children are going to go to someone that they know,”
Local leaders fear areas in California like the Central Valley, Central Coast, and the Inland Empire are among those being targeted first, as they don’t have as robust legal services like the Bay Area or Los Angeles.
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