Immigration raids on California farms seen threatening businesses supplying America’s food

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - Large-scale immigration raids at packinghouses and fields in California are threatening businesses that supply much of the country's food, farm bureaus say.

Dozens of farmworkers have been arrested recently after uniformed federal agents fanned out on farms northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, which is known for growing strawberries, lemons and avocados.

Others are skipping work as fear in immigrant communities has deepened as President Donald Trump steps up his immigration crackdown, vowing to dramatically increase arrests and sending federal agents to detain people at Home Depot parking lots and workplaces including car washes and a garment factory. It also comes as Trump sent National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles following protests over his immigration enforcement operations. Demonstrations have since spread to other U.S. cities.

Maureen McGuire, chief executive of Ventura County's farm bureau, said between 25% and 45% of farmworkers have stopped showing up for work since the large-scale raids began this month.

"When our workforce is afraid, fields go unharvested, packinghouses fall behind, and market supply chains, from local grocery stores to national retailers, are affected," she said in a statement on Thursday. "This impacts every American who eats."

California’s farms produce more than a third of the country’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts. While the state’s government is dominated by Democrats, there are large Republican areas that run through farm country, and many growers throughout the state have been counting on Trump to help with key agricultural issues ranging from water to trade.

Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805 UndocuFund, estimates at least 43 people were detained in farm fields in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since Monday. The number is from both the Mexican consulate and the group's own estimates from talking with family members of people detained, she said.

Elizabeth Strater, the United Farm Workers' director of strategic campaigns, said her group received reports of immigration arrests on farms as far north as California's Central Valley. Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, said farmworker members reported that agents went to at least nine farms but were turned away by supervisors because they lacked a warrant.

"This is just a mass assault on a working-class immigrant community and essentially profiling," Zucker said. "They are not going after specific people who are really targeted. They're just fishing."

In response to questions about the farm arrests, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the agency will follow the president's direction and continue to seek to remove immigrants who have committed crimes.

On Thursday, Trump acknowledged growers' concerns that his stepped-up immigration enforcement could leave them without workers they rely on to grow the country's food. He said something would be done to address the situation, but he did not provide specifics.

"Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he said on his social media account, adding: “We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!"

The California Farm Bureau said it has not received reports of a widespread disruption to its workforce, but there are concerns among community members. Bryan Little, the bureau's senior director of policy advocacy, said the group has long pressed for immigration reform to deal with long-running labor shortages.

"We recognize that some workers may feel uncertain right now, and we want to be very clear: California agriculture depends on and values its workforce," Little said in a statement. "If federal immigration enforcement activities continue in this direction, it will become increasingly difficult to produce food, process it and get it onto grocery store shelves."

One worker, who asked not to be named out of fear, said he was picking strawberries at a Ventura County farm early Tuesday when more than a dozen cars pulled up to the farm next door. He said they arrested at least three people and put them in vans, while women who worked on the farm burst out crying. He said the supervisors on his farm did not allow the agents inside.

"The first thing that came to my mind is, who will stay with my kids?" the worker, who is originally from Mexico and has lived in the United States for two decades, said in Spanish. "It's something so sad and unfortunate because we are not criminals."

He said he didn't go to work Wednesday out of fear, and his bosses told him to stay home at least one more day until things settle down. But that means fruit isn't getting picked, and he isn't getting paid.

"These are lost days, days that we're missing work. But what else can we do?" he said.

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Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California