On California farms, workers say threats to deport them on the rise

In many years on dairy farms, the worker often labored for 10 hours with no breaks. Sometimes, he said, a boss asked him to clean milk tanks using harsh chemicals without protective gear. He was electrocuted when he stepped into a puddle created by a broken water pump, he said. At his latest job in Kings County, he stayed silent, fearing he could lose his job. Last summer, at the height of federal immigration raids in California, the boss issued a warning, according to the worker: If anyone tried to take legal action against him, he’d make sure they ended up in Tijuana. For the dairy worker, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico in his mid-50s who requested anonymity to speak about the incident, this felt like the final straw. After more than two decades working on dairy farms, most recently earning about $1,800 every 15 days, he packed his things and quit. “What if they sent someone after me, or they wanted to get rid of me all of a sudden?” he said in a video interview from a farmworker advocacy group's office shortly after leaving his job. “I couldn’t bear living there anymore.” Amid President Trump’s mass deportation campaign, immigration-related threats from supervisors in the fields are on the rise, farmworkers and advocates say. Farmworkers who turned to advocacy groups for help spoke to The Times about their experiences but did not want to be identified for fear of retribution from their employers and the federal government. They described instances in which bosses threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on them, sometimes because they complained about workplace violations. In a state where roughly 60% of farmworkers are undocumented, according to surveys by UC Merced Community and Labor Center, many already feared being deported or separated from their families. But the intensity of Trump's campaign has increased the frequency of such threats and the fear they create, workers and advocates say. Last January, a three-day raid in Kern County where undocumented laborers were arrested set off panic in the Central Valley and other farming regions with large immigrant workforces. In June, a video captured a farmworker running across an Oxnard field while being chased by immigration agents. And a July raid on a cannabis farm in Ventura County resulted in the arrests of hundreds and the death of a man who fell off a roof while trying to hide. “Immigrant workforces like farmworkers, they’re being exposed to an increase amount of violations at their work, and that includes immigration-related threats,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said. At the same time, she added, “workers have an increased fear of coming forward to report violations and to cooperate in investigations.” Because of that fear, the number of complaints reported to her agency each year — an average of about 30,000 — doesn’t capture the full picture, she said, when there are more than 18 million workers in the state. Her office has partnered with community groups across the Central Coast, the Central Valley and the Coachella Valley to inform agricultural workers about their rights, holding between 15 to 30 events a month. “They really just want ... to work," she said of farmworkers. "They want good, steady employment." Some employers have taken measures to protect workers and keep ICE off their properties. Rob Roy, president and general counsel of the Ventura County Agricultural Assn., said he has not heard of employers in his region making immigration-related threats. After the three-day Kern County raid, the association informed its members — growers, packing houses, farm labor contractors, nurseries and related businesses — that immigration agents need warrants to enter their properties. Members, who received “Know Your Rights” cards to distribute to workers, should tell workers to take their breaks on site when ICE agents are in town, the association recommended. “It would be inimical for our growers or labor contractors to be threatening workers with deportation or contacting ICE, because we have done totally the opposite in terms of educating the farmworker community and growers," Roy said. But at other farms, workers said they face retribution if they speak out. Finding work is often dependent on references from previous jobs, so maintaining good relationships with employers, as well as the contractors who supply farm labor, is a matter of survival, they said. Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, said farmworkers have described instances of employers pointing out Border Patrol or ICE vehicles and saying they easily could call them over. In Yolo County, a farmworker said that after she and others reported that a family member of their supervisor falsified work hours, the supervisor said that if he felt like it, he could report undocumented workers to immigration agents. “[The raids] were one of the reasons he would make these types of comments, because he knew it would intimidate us,” said the worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution from employers. A coworker urged her to not speak out again, she said, but she ended up losing her job after the contractor stopped calling her. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said work site immigration enforcement remains a "cornerstone" in the administration's efforts to protect public safety and national security. A White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said there are plenty of American workers to meet employers' needs. "President Trump’s agenda to create jobs for American workers represents this Administration’s commitment to capitalizing on that untapped potential while delivering on our mandate to enforce our immigration laws," Jackson said in a statement. A 2022 UC Merced study found that farmworkers face deep socioeconomic barriers: 42% reported low food security, and many live in overcrowded housing, with a median wage of $16,000 per year. Amalia Bernardo, an organizer with the Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, which supports Indigenous communities in rural California, said her group tried to help a farmworker who said he wasn't paid for the work he did. When the worker tried to claim the wages, the employer told him that “if he doesn't stop what he’s doing, ‘le va echar la migra.’ He's going to call ICE," said Bernardo, whose organization has four offices in the Central Valley. As a community organizer with Valley Voices in the Central Valley, Araceli Molar de Barrios hands out free food to farmworkers, along with "Know Your Rights" cards. Some workers tell her they're owed wages or they weren't paid for sick days. Some have had family members taken away by ICE. She encourages them to submit complaints about labor violations to the state. But often, she said, they fear losing their jobs — or worse, having ICE called on them and being separated from their families. “We explain to them that everyone has rights. Don’t be afraid to speak up. If something happens to you, let us know,” she said. “Many of them say no, and others let us help them." On a Wednesday in February in the Coachella Valley, more than two dozen farmworkers weaved up and down rows of strawberries, their gloved hands flicking quickly to pluck the fruit and stash it in boxes. Luz Gallegos, executive director of the Todec Legal Center, thanked them for their hard work. They gathered around Gallegos and community educator Luis Guzman, who informed them about free English classes, a hotline for immigration services and their rights as workers. “You’re not alone, we are with you, and we’re working hard to ensure justice," Gallegos said.