The Fear that Exists Now is 100% Real,” Says Latinos After Raids in Central Valley

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As elected officials came together in Fresno on Saturday to discuss this week’s immigration raids, they spoke with certainty about future enforcement operations in the Central Valley. US Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, reported during a Saturday news conference that his office has been inundated with concerned calls from the Central Valley’s food production industries. The callers shared the message that the agricultural and dairy workforce has been gripped with fear of arrest by immigration agents.

“The fear that exists now is 100% real,” said Fresno County Supervisor Luis Chavez, who organized the news conference. Chavez said he has heard parents are planning not to send their children in the next week, when Fresno Unified students are scheduled to return from winter vacation. “If you don’t have students in the classroom, you’re not going to get funding,” Chavez said, “and that’s just the way the formula works. That’s going to hurt our community.”
Anxiety among immigrant parents spread throughout the Central Valley in the past week as a Customs and Border Patrol operation rolled out in Kern County and resulted in 78 arrests. Border Patrol has said “Operation Return to Sender” targeted undocumented immigrants on a list of people who have criminal backgrounds, although one agent told there were also arrests of people not on the list.

Costa said he spoke with Border Patrol Commissioner Pete Flores, who told him the operation has concluded and was confined to Kern County. But Costa also said he has heard reports that conflict with Flores’ statement. A Border Patrol post on Facebook earlier this week also announced the agency is planning operations in Fresno and Sacramento.

For days, news reports have included accounts that describe the Kern County operation as one that also impacted people who were on their way to work. Cal Matters on Friday published an account of agents blocking one woman in her car with their vehicles before they drove away due to the arrival of local Univision news reporters. Throughout last week, Facebook groups that Spanish-speakers use to find agricultural work in the Fresno area were flooded with posts about immigration agent sightings on local streets and highways. Many of those posts included unverified and false information.

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