ICE Surge Disrupts Central Valley Farm Labor

Farm operations, packing sheds and fields across California’s Central Valley are losing workers as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge leaves families searching for detained relatives, reduces school attendance and keeps undocumented residents at home. In Fresno, construction has essentially come to a halt, City Councilmember Miguel Arias said.

Workers and Communities Under Pressure

Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers, condemned what she called a “brutal ICE surge.” “Warrantless stops and roving patrols by masked federal agents across California, especially the Central Valley have been terrorizing farm workers ... and the chaos is escalating,” she said in a written statement. “These are not criminals. These are hard-working, long term members of our communities being unlawfully targeted simply for looking Latino and working class.”

Arias said enforcement operations had reduced school attendance and prompted student protests Friday. “We're seeing across-the-board reduction of school attendance, substantial reduction in employees showing up to farm operations, packing sheds and in the fields,” he said. “We're seeing very few people out in the streets.”

California is home to one-third of the nation’s agricultural workforce, the California Farm Bureau said in a written statement reaffirming its support for agricultural workers. A farmworker who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation said ICE officers pulled him over last Tuesday while he drove to work with three others. The officers didn’t know his name, he said. He declined to answer questions about where he was born and when he crossed the border, and they let him go.

Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns and national vice president of UFW, said farmworkers began reporting immigration patrols on Oct. 6. How many people had been detained remained unclear, she said. Strater said similar ICE arrests were happening in the Coachella Valley and Ventura County, where a preliminary injunction restricts civil arrests without a warrant. Authorities are investigating multiple vehicle accidents in Oxnard and Simi Valley involving ICE agents. “It's total lawlessness,” Strater said.

Federal Enforcement and Local Response

In Kerman, Mayor Maria Pacheco confronted ICE agents Thursday as they detained people. “You're not welcome in my city,” she told an agent in a video posted on Facebook. “You've taken enough people yesterday. We don't want you here.”

Gloria Hernandez, a volunteer with the Valley Watch Network, a rapid response group that tracks ICE arrests and helps families of detained people, said she noticed increased activity at ICE's downtown Fresno office in the days before the reported surge. She saw 17 black vehicles and what she described as “a bunch of new ICE people.” “They're hitting the small towns, the rural areas, the farmworkers,” she said.

In Madera, organizers postponed the third annual Oaxacan Guelaguetza festival amid growing fears, the group said on Facebook. In Fresno, the children of Noelia Bautista and Cipriano Lopez started a GoFundMe after ICE detained their parents. They contend their parents were racially profiled.

A review of reported arrests found that some detained people had recent arrests, while others appeared to have no criminal record. An unidentified Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed ICE arrested Bautista and Lopez last week, saying they had “illegally entered the U.S. at unknown times and places.” The spokesperson said immigration judges would hear their claims and that they would receive due process, calling allegations of racial profiling “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE.”

Stops, Detentions and Due Process

Last week, Prudencio Rivera, 31, drove home from a night shift at a poultry farm when a truck with Texas plates followed him and switched on its emergency lights. Rivera pulled over in Kerman and began livestreaming on Facebook. Two officers wearing green vests marked “ICE” stood outside his vehicle.

Rivera told The Times he entered the United States in 2023 through an asylum process, has a work permit and checks in with ICE once a month. In the livestream, an officer said Rivera’s work permit didn’t give him permission to live in the country, then warned, “We're going to break the window.” Glass shattered on video. Rivera said agents detained him, took him to the ICE office in Fresno and released him after checking his documents and record. “Imagine, thinking they're never going to let you leave,” he said.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents enforce the laws every day across the country, including in California. An unidentified spokesperson told The Times that ICE wouldn’t disclose or discuss operations “for operational security and the safety of our officers.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said increased reports of federal immigration agents across the state resulted from President Trump using “fear and panic as a weapon — putting families at risk, undermining our economy, and terrorizing communities.”