ICE Raids Trigger Crisis for Immigrant Workers and Local Economies

This month, aggressive federal immigration raids have upended entire communities across Bakersfield, Los Angeles, and surrounding Central Valley regions. Federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in coordination with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), descended on farms, food processing plants, and Home Depot parking lots — detaining workers in large numbers.

Local organizers report that dozens have already been transferred to detention centers, with families receiving no formal legal notification and zero access to counsel within the first 48 hours.

Bakersfield: Raids at Dawn, Empty Fields by Noon

According to reports from Kern County organizers and The Guardian, ICE agents arrived in unmarked vehicles at multiple farming sites in the Shafter and Lamont areas of Bakersfield between June 12 and June 17. Workers say the agents posed as field inspectors before quickly detaining people without presenting warrants.

“They swept through just after the early shift started,” said one farm manager who requested anonymity. “People dropped tools and ran into the orchards. Some haven’t come back since.”

Local clinics saw a 60% drop in appointments that week. Dozens of children stopped showing up to summer programs out of fear their parents might not return home.

Los Angeles: Day Laborers Surrounded at Home Depot

In Los Angeles, two separate ICE actions on June 15 and June 18 targeted migrant workers outside Home Depot locations in Westlake and Paramount. According to eyewitnesses, agents appeared in tactical gear around 6:45 a.m. and formed a perimeter around day laborer pickup zones.

Cellphone video shows ICE officers tackling individuals to the pavement and forcing others into waiting vans. At least one bystander was pepper sprayed trying to intervene.

“This was not an arrest. This was a hunt,” said Carmen Esparza, a community defender with CHIRLA. “The fact that these raids happened on public sidewalks during commute hours sends a chilling message.”

Economic Shockwaves: Fear Hits Businesses and Agriculture

The California Farm Bureau has sounded the alarm. At least 40% of field labor in the Central Valley stayed home in the week following the raids, especially in Ventura, Tulare, and Kern counties. That gap in labor jeopardizes entire harvests, with avocado, grape, and citrus farms unable to meet shipping deadlines.

Meanwhile, in the Bay Area, restaurants and food services report a steep dip in business. A San Francisco Chronicle article confirmed immigrant families are avoiding public spaces and skipping restaurant outings. Business owners have seen revenue drops of 20 to 30%, especially in working-class neighborhoods like Fruitvale and Mission District.

“People don’t want to go out of the house,” said Bay Area restauranteur Alex González. “Even my regulars stopped coming.”

Legal groups are mobilizing across California. The ACLU of Southern California and Immigrant Defenders Law Center are filing FOIA requests and legal challenges to expose the tactics being used.

At the same time, emergency response hotlines run by grassroots organizations like RAICES, UFW, and Mijente have received hundreds of calls in the last 10 days — reporting everything from workplace raids to home surveillance, drone flyovers, and ICE questioning children outside schools.

Resistance Grows Statewide

California lawmakers, including Assemblymembers from the Latino Legislative Caucus, are calling for immediate hearings and a halt to workplace raids. A resolution introduced by Asm. Wendy Carrillo would prohibit ICE from conducting mass arrests at publicly accessible worksites and require state agencies to report on federal immigration coordination.

Meanwhile, protests have erupted outside ICE facilities in LA, Bakersfield, and Fresno. On June 21, thousands gathered outside the Adelanto Detention Center demanding the release of detainees and the defunding of private prison contractors.

What We Demand

We echo the demands of workers and organizers across California:

  • End all workplace and street-level ICE raids.
  • Immediate release of detainees, with access to counsel and families.
  • Permanent legal protections for undocumented farm and food workers.
  • Abolish ICE’s access to DMV and utility records used for targeting.
  • Defund and dismantle the surveillance-industrial complex that enables mass profiling.

What You Can Do

  • Donate to legal defense funds (like Immigrant Defenders or RAICES).
  • Document and report any ICE activity in your area.
  • Form or join a rapid response team in your county.
  • Contact your local officials to demand non-cooperation with federal raids.
  • Refuse to normalize this. Talk to your neighbors. Show up. Be loud.

The raids are real. The fear is real. But so is the resistance.

We will not allow California — or any part of this country — to become a militarized zone for fascism to grow. The fields and parking lots of our communities are not battlegrounds. They are homes. And we will defend them.