Pre-Election ICE Surge in California Could Backfire on Republicans

Read the top story of the day in your inbox.

A wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity against farmworkers in the Central Valley of California is upending one of the nation’s closest House races. The raids in a major agricultural region with high concentrations of Latino farmworkers have taken dozens of community members into ICE custody over the past couple of weeks, spurring outrage and returning Donald Trump’s aggressive and unpopular immigration enforcement policies to the front pages, just as ballots arrived by mail.

“All law-abiding immigrants who work hard and contribute to our communities across the Central Valley have a right to go to work or drive their kids to school and return home safely,” said Randy Villegas, the progressive Democrat running in California’s 22nd Congressional District, in a statement. Villegas has continually criticized his opponent, incumbent Republican David Valadao, for voting to put $85 billion toward ICE’s enforcement budget and facilitating the mass arrests and deportations.

More from David Dayen

In a swing district that’s 74 percent Latino, political disputes don’t get more controversial than this. Valadao claimed last week that ICE told him the operation was “focused on individuals with active warrants and known criminal histories.” But locals with knowledge on the ground dispute that, saying that ICE is instead engaged in roving patrols designed to capture farmworkers as they head to the fields.

“Saying [raids] are targeted is not accurate,” said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the United Farm Workers (UFW), which has reported ICE abductions in the Madera and Delano areas over the past week. “We call them suspicion-less stops, in the early morning on the roads of agricultural worksites. Regardless of status, regardless of having long-term work authorization, anybody that looks brown and working-class right now is being stopped.”

Agents conducting the ICE surge in California have reportedly been told to “go after anybody,” which supports the UFW’s account.

An unintentionally candid assessment of ICE’s roving patrols came out of Valadao’s mouth in a televised debate against Villegas last week. Asked about immigration enforcement, Valadao responded: “It is what it is.”

Ravi Mangla of the Working Families Party, which supports Villegas, responded: “Valadao made clear in the debate that he’s not going to stop or stand up to ICE, even when they terrorize his own constituents. He’s an absolute coward.”

STATE AND LOCAL MEDIA HAS REPORTED EXTENSIVELY on the sweeps, which have rounded up people who have spent as much as 49 years living in this country. According to residents and advocates, those detained were not asked for names or presented with warrants for their detentions. And while agricultural worksites have not been entered during the surge, locations have included public spaces outside Latino grocery stores, pharmacies, community hospitals, and even domestic violence shelters.

In April last year, a federal judge barred the Border Patrol from engaging in warrantless stops or roving patrols in California, but that order was set aside by an appeals court in August.

Some of the activity, like on rural roads in predawn hours, is designed to attract little attention from bystanders. This is consistent with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s efforts to engage in the same level of enforcement as under the showboating Kristi Noem, but in quieter ways with less public backlash.

One incident is emblematic, advocates said. In the city of Kerman, a farmworker named Prudencio Rivera said that ICE agents tracked him for two miles, said there was a deportation order for him that they did not present, broke his window when he refused to roll it down, physically pulled him from his car, threw him to the ground, and handcuffed him. After Rivera was brought to an immigration facility in Fresno, he showed officials there the same work authorization papers he showed to the abducting agents. He was eventually let go.

Strater described similar situations, which can result in cars being abandoned on the road with lights and ignition still on. She said that community members have assisted in returning vehicles to families, or obtained Ring camera footage that could shed light on ICE abductions.

The Prospect in your inbox

Analysis that goes beyond the noise with in-depth, progressive reporting.

No paywall, no programmatic ads — just the reporting. Unsubscribe anytime. Submitting your email signs you up for The Daily Prospect, our weekday morning newsletter.

There are no specific numbers of detainees who have been taken, and according to the UFW, ICE has been slow-walking reporting of detentions to create obstacles to legal representation. In one instance the UFW related, a man called his wife from a specific immigration detention facility, but the man’s name could not be found in a database of detainees. Without being present in the database, detainees cannot have access to attorneys, and Strater said that by the time they show up in the database, they have often been moved to other facilities.

The local mood is “tense,” Strater said. One incident last week featured an allegedly intoxicated off-duty ICE agent passing out on a local’s front yard, then assaulting the elderly resident and his daughter; the man then shot the agent in apparent self-defense. The agent was himself taken into custody for felony assault. Elsewhere, a car crash involving an ICE agent was reported.

Major local farm bureaus have been silent about the increased activity. Privately, UFW officials said that they have raised concerns but have been reluctant to speak out or put their names on any lawsuits.

The timing of the surge, a month before the elections, could be designed to chill voter mobilization and balloting from Hispanic residents. It also comes as some crops, like pomegranates, are being harvested. These are some of the last shifts farmworkers can get before the winter months. “We are entering into the time when farmworkers are dependent on every single hour,” Strater said. “They don’t have a choice but to show up for work.”

She added that farmworkers are changing their commuting patterns, like splitting up husbands and wives who work at the same facility to increase chances that someone will be available to pick up their children from day care.

As far as the effect on mobilization, streets in farmworker towns have been quiet the past couple of weeks, and some local festivals have been canceled. But advocates say it’s having the opposite effect, uniting opposition to Trump and building determination to remove his allies from office. The region has seen numerous protests from residents, student walkouts, and in one instance participation from Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco, confronting ICE agents in a parking lot outside a Latino bakery. “You are not a resident of Kerman and you need to leave!” Pacheco told agents.

The UFW is continuing its registration and canvassing efforts, and officials believe the ICE raids will be top of mind for voters in the election. Asked about Valadao’s comments, Strater said, “He was elected to represent the people of the 22nd District, but he’s too much of a chickenshit to stand up to whoever is pulling the strings … He knows full well that these people are the backbone of the agricultural economy.”

In his statement last week, Valadao did say that “Hardworking farmworkers who are simply going to work, providing for their families, and contributing to our agricultural economy should not have to live in fear.” The UFW says his other comments contradict that alleged concern.

The post appeared first on The American Prospect.