As the summer harvest season begins in California’s sprawling agricultural areas, farmers and their workers say they are shocked by the Trump administration’s determination of how a firm crackdown on illegal immigrants affects them.
California grows more than one-third of the country’s vegetables, as well as more than three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts in the fertile expansion of the Central Valley, the Central Coast and other agricultural areas. The industry produced nearly $60 billion in goods in 2023, According to the country’s figures – According to the University of California research, this output depends largely on the skilled labor force of the workforce, which at least has not been proven.
Without workers, the juicy beef tomatoes are ripening and have to be done by hand and the vines will rot. The yellow peaches just arrived at a delicate mixture of sweet sour and egg art will fall to the ground, unselected. Same as melon, grapes and cherries.
That’s why growers and their workers were worried when federal immigration agents drove into Oxnard’s berry fields last week and detained 40 farm workers.
Farm workers (many of whom have lived and worked in the community for decades, are rounded and deported, separated from their families and livelihoods. Farmers fear their labor will disappear—either locked in detention centers or forced into shadows because they fear arrest—need their labor the most. Everyone wants to know that Oxnard’s surprise raid is the beginning of a wider repression statewide that fundamentally destroys the harvest season (which is also the time when most farm workers make the most money—or a one-time enforcement action.
According to farmers, workers advocates and elected officials, the answers were not clearer in the days that followed.
“As California agricultural communities, we are trying to figure out what’s going on,” said Ryan Jacobsen, CEO of Fresno County Farm Bureau and a farmer of almonds and grapes. He added that “time is crucial” because farms and orchards are “entering our busiest time.”
After last week’s raid in Ventura County, growers across the country began urgently lobbying the Trump administration, believing that law enforcement actions on farm operations could hinder food production. They pointed out the fields around Oxnard Post Raid, and as many as 45% of workers stayed at home in the following days, according to the Ventura County Agriculture Bureau.
President Trump appears to have received the message. On Thursday, he posted “Our Great Farmers” on Truth Society, and the leaders of the hospitality industry complained that his immigration policy “grabs very good, long workers leaving them, and those jobs are nearly impossible to replace.”
He added that it was “bad” and “change is coming!”
On the same day, According to the New York Times reportA senior U.S. immigration and customs enforcement official wrote that the regional ice director told them to fire the farm with restaurants and hotels.
“Effective today, please keep all work site enforcement investigations/agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packaging plants), restaurants and hotel operations,” the official wrote.
Much of California agriculture has been lifted up.
Then on Monday news The instructions from the farms, hotels and restaurants were reversed.
“For industries that harbor violent criminals or intentionally undermine ICE efforts, there will be no safe space,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said Monday. “Law enforcement in the workplace remains the cornerstone of our efforts to maintain public safety, national security and economic stability.”
In the heart of California, Jacobsen of the Fresno County Agriculture Department told many farmers: “We have no clues right now.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson was asked Tuesday to clarify the administration’s policy on farmland immigration attacks, saying the Trump administration is committed to “enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
“While the president is focused on immediately removing dangerous criminal illegal foreigners from the country, anyone who is deported illegally is likely to be deported,” Jackson said.
Still, Jacobson and others have also noticed that, besides the turmoil in Ventura County last week, agricultural operations in other parts of the state were largely swept by mass immigration.
Meanwhile, workers continued to show up for work, and most even returned to the fields in Ventura County.
According to several interviews, last week’s raid had a notable result: employers are contacting workers’ rights organizations for guidance on how to ensure workers’ safety.
“Some employers are trying to protect employees as much as possible,” said Armando Elenes, secretary treasurer of United Farm Workers.
He said his organization and others are training employers on how to respond if immigration agents show up on their farm or packaging room. He said a core message: Do not allow agents on the property if there is no signed arrest warrant.
Indeed, many growers of attributes raided in Ventura County seem to have understood this. Advocates reported federal agents were turned away due to no arrest warrant.
In Ventura County, Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of the Central Coast Alliance, once in the Federation of Sustainable Economy, a group that often encounters inconsistencies with growers on issues such as worker pay and protection, highlighting the unusual alliances established between farmers and workers’ advocates.
Two days after the raid, Zucker read a statement that Maureen McGuire, CEO of the Ventura County Agriculture Bureau, who represents the organization representing growers, condemned the sweeping of immigrants.
“Farmers care very much about their workers, not abstract labor, but humans and valuable community members who deserve dignity, safety and respect,” McGuire said in the statement. “Ventura County agriculture depends on them. California’s economy depends on them. The food system in the United States depends on them.”
Before reading the statement, Zucker told the crowd, he evoked laughter: [with] Ventura County, you might be surprised to see the reading of the Farm Bureau statement. We clash on many issues, but this is where we stand together and we speak literally in one voice. ”
“The agricultural industry and migrant workers are under attack, and federal agencies are at the doorstep,” Zach later said. “Nothing brings people together like a common enemy.”
This article is part of the Times Equity Reporting Plan,,,,, Depend on James Irving FoundationExplore the challenges faced by low-income workers and their efforts to solve them California’s economic divide.
