Los Angeles, California — Recent raids carried out by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a rural California county have struck fear into immigrant communities as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.CBP says that the operation in Kern County, which took place over three days in early January, resulted in the detention of 78 people. The United Farm Workers (UFW) union says it believes the number is closer to 200.
“The fields were almost solitary the day after the raids,” a 38-year-old undocumented farmworker named Alejanda, who declined to give her last name, said of the aftermath.
She explained that many workers stayed home out of fear. “This time of year, the orchards are usually full of people, but it felt like I was by myself when I returned to work.”
The raids are being seen by local labourers and organisations like UFW as a shot across the bow from immigration enforcement agencies before Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
His second term as president is expected to ring in a new era of enhanced restrictions and deportation efforts. Advertisement
While the number of people arrested represents a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers underpinning California’s agricultural sector, the anxieties caused by such raids extend far beyond those detained.
“On Wednesday …