Photo: Bob Nichols, US Department of Agriculture, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. File photo of California farmworkers in Sanger, California, in 2013, not a photo of the raids.
Federal immigration agents have fanned out across California's Central Valley in recent weeks, stirring fear in Latino communities and allegations of voter intimidation in a toss-up congressional race that could help decide control of the US House of Representatives. With the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, the raids have turned immigration enforcement into a ballot-box issue in one of the closest districts in the country.
The planned surge was announced to agents in early October, according to an internal email seen by Reuters, and was directed by the White House, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Unlike past operations in big cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago, which put hundreds of armed, masked agents on the streets, the Central Valley operation has involved small groups of officers moving from town to town through a largely agricultural region.
Arrests surge in farmworker towns
The United Farm Workers union said it knew of hundreds of California farmworkers detained in recent weeks. In Bakersfield, immigration arrests jumped from about one a day for much of the year to nearly 10 per day in mid-October, according to preliminary Department of Homeland Security data. In nearby Wasco, a town of just 26,000 people, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested at least seven people within a few days.
Arrests have taken place outside homes and at busy intersections, in strip mall parking lots, gas stations and near schools, according to lawyers, immigration advocates, videos and court records. Officers are also auditing records at local businesses and using employee information to arrest workers at their homes or on their daily commute, the US official told Reuters. "Agents were given the green light to be out and make as many arrests as possible," the official said.
UFW national Vice President Elizabeth Strater told Reuters that the vast majority of farmworkers detained in recent weeks had no criminal records, and some had legal work authorisation. In one case cited in a federal court petition, a brother and sister from Mexico were unloading their shopping in a small Kern County town on their day off from work in the fields when agents arrested them. The agents were looking for someone else and did not know whom they had picked up until the handcuffs were on, according to the petition, which contests the detention as unlawful. The sister arrived in the US as an unaccompanied minor more than a decade ago, and her brother arrived as a toddler; neither has a criminal record, the petition says. On the day of the arrest, the woman's three-year-old daughter was at daycare and her 11-year-old son was on a school camping trip. Their father died suddenly this year, leaving their mother as the sole caregiver. The Department of Homeland Security said it did not have enough information to comment on the case.
A toss-up district on a knife's edge
The enforcement activity has drawn particular attention in California's 22nd Congressional District, which includes Bakersfield and is 73 percent Latino. Polls have shown progressive Democrat Randy Villegas with a slight edge over six-term Republican incumbent David Valadao. "By all metrics, this should be a very close district," said Thad Kousser, co-director of UC San Diego's Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections. "Anything that drives voters to or away from the polls could matter."
Villegas told reporters last week that the arrests were a "very clear attempt to try and intimidate our communities before this election." He has made the arrests a campaign issue, criticising his opponent for voting to triple ICE's budget and failing "to stand up for immigrant communities." Valadao said in a statement that he understood "the fear and uncertainty immigration enforcement has created for families throughout our communities," urging the Trump administration to "prioritise the removal of individuals who pose a threat to public safety." In an interview with the Sacramento Bee published this week, Valadao said the agency had gone too far in some cases but declined to give examples, and he has said ICE is targeting criminals in the community.
The Department of Homeland Security, ICE's parent agency, declined to comment on the California operations, citing concerns for officer safety, and did not respond to the allegations of voter intimidation.
A chilling effect on voting
Local farmworker Maribel Ramirez told Reuters that the arrests have had a chilling effect on political activity. She said some young Hispanics with US citizenship have told her they are scared to vote, fearing it could expose the addresses of family members without legal status. Even though voter information is meant to be private, some of "those who can vote won't do so because their parents are immigrants," she said. Ramirez is urging every US citizen she knows to cast a ballot, "but not for anyone in red," referring to Republicans.
There are fewer people on the streets in Bakersfield, according to Ana Valencia, who owns a barber shop in town. Some local businesses are offering free delivery to those afraid to leave their homes. Valencia says she voted early "because I don't want ICE here, or anywhere really."
The politics extend beyond the Central Valley. President Donald Trump made historic inroads with Hispanic voters in the 2024 election, but polls show public opinion has turned sharply against his immigration sweeps and economic policies. Just 24 percent of Hispanic Americans approve of Trump's performance, the lowest share in either of his presidential terms, a Reuters/Ipsos survey found last month. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said Trump's agenda had made Hispanic Americans "more prosperous and safer" and referred questions on ICE operations to the Department of Homeland Security.
With three days to go until the midterms, the Central Valley has become a test of whether immigration enforcement, conducted in the final stretch of a campaign, changes who shows up to vote. The administration presents the operation as election security and public safety. Its critics in the district call it intimidation, and say the empty streets of Bakersfield are already the evidence.
Sources: Reuters (via Arab News); Times Now News (Reuters-based).