Immigrant parent fears '100%' real after Border Patrol raids in Central Valley, leaders say

Erik Galicia, The Fresno Bee on Jan 12, 2025

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As elected officials came together in Fresno on Saturday to discuss this week’s immigration raids, they spoke with uncertainty about future enforcement operations in the Central Valley.

U.S. 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, though one agent told The Bee 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.

But on Saturday morning, merchants who The Fresno Bee spoke with at the Cherry Auction Flea Market spoke in agreement with Supervisor Chavez: Immigrants are on edge, and their children’s well-being is their main concern.

“We serve mostly people who work in the fields,” one woman who runs a daycare in the Fresno area with her husband told The Bee in Spanish. “Everyone is nervous because they don’t know if they’re going to drop off their children in the morning and not be around to pick them up at the end of the day.”

The daycare operator said she has told her clients to be prepared for the worst: “Have a plan for your children, make sure they have all their documents in place, their birth certificates,” she said.

Alejandro Padilla, a power tool salesman who also works in the fields, said the rumors of impending raids have been rampant among farmworkers this week.

“A few people I have worked with told me they weren’t going to work this week,” he said. “They are afraid that if they are arrested, they will not be given a fair case, that they will be thrown out and separated from their children.”

Jonathan Parra, who sets up a medical insurance information booth at the flea market each week, also said agricultural foremen have told him a portion of their crews are not showing up to work. Parra said he plays soccer at a local park, and not many people showed up for the game this past week.

“Supposedly they are just focusing on criminals,” he said of Border Patrol’s operation, “but if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you’re on your way back to Mexico.”

Some vendors at the Flea Market spoke with a less fearful tone.

One single mother who sells fruits and vegetables said the real test will come when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

“Then we will know if things are really going to get ugly,” she said. “People are scared for their children, but panicking is bad for your health. I’m not scared.... Whatever happens, I tell my children not to live in fear.”

Margarita Rocha, executive director of the nonprofit Centro La Familia, said during Saturday’s news conference that the group has begun receiving concerned calls.

“We’ve not said a lot about children,” she said, “how they don’t want to go to school because they’ve heard their parents talking about the possibility that, if dad or mom goes to work, they may not come home. What happens? The children are highly impacted and will be traumatized for years.”