BAKERSFIELD— Maria Casarez was washing dishes and cleaning up in her three-bedroom duplex at lunchtime Tuesday before her four children got home from school when her husband's nephew called.
“My uncle just got caught — immigration,” he said. They just caught my uncle, the immigration officer.
The two had been talking in a Home Depot parking lot, less than a mile from their home in Bakersfield, when Border Patrol agents showed up and started asking questions.
Casarez rushed to the scene, where she said she saw a dozen agents. “It was ugly,” she said. They had already taken her husband away.
The Border Patrol operation near Bakersfield lasted several days and resulted in 78 arrests this week, raising alarm bells throughout the Central Valley, where predominantly immigrant workers help harvest a quarter of the food grown in the United States
Immigrant advocates say it was the largest enforcement action in the Central Valley in years and fear it could be a prelude to what is to come under President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations – a move many fear that it will have devastating consequences for the region's immigration, agricultural and processing industries.
The Border Patrol confirmed that officers in Kern County conducted a targeted enforcement operation, saying it was aimed at dismantling transnational criminal organizations. U.S. Border Patrol chief agent Gregory K. Bovino said in statements on social media that dozens of officers arrested two child rapists and “other criminals” and seized 36 pounds of narcotics as part of Operation Return to Sender.
In the small farming towns outside Bakersfield, at gas stations and in the miles of fields, everyone seemed to know about the arrests, which had spread quickly on social media and sowed fear among migrant families, many of whom had children or spouses born here. And in the panic, even routine law enforcement presence at malls and highway exits was at times linked online to immigration raids.
Bovino, who runs the agency The sector center said agents arrested other people encountered during the operation who were in the U.S. illegally. It is unclear how long the enforcement action might take; Bovino said agents are planning additional operations in Fresno and Sacramento.
“Since our border is under control in El Centro, we go where the threat is,” Bovino wrote in response to someone on Instagram who said he was confused about why the Border Patrol was conducting operations so far north of the border.
The enforcement has puzzled local immigration advocates, who questioned why the Biden administration was using its final weeks to target Central Valley migrant workers for deportation.
“I understand the need to protect the border,” said Manuel Cunha Jr., president of the Nisei Farmers League, which represents agricultural employers and their workers. “Stay away from our farms. Go after the cartels – do your raids on these people.”
Growers reported that workers stayed home for fear of being arrested, he said.
He fears that the consequences of the operation could affect the entire economy, which powers farms, dairies and food processing plants. Vines and trees lose their harvest if not pruned on time. Cows could die if workers don't show up to milk.
“It certainly has an impact on the food chain,” Cunha said. “But it has the biggest impact on these families because if they can’t work, they can’t feed their children.”
Casarez said she knows many people who are afraid to leave their house. A friend's daughter injured her arm at school. The woman was so afraid of taking her to the hospital that Casarez offered to accompany her.
Just a day before her husband's detention, she met with a lawyer to clarify his legal status. He had been in the country for more than a decade and worked in construction.
Lawyer Parvin Wiliani spent the next three days looking for him. She asked not to reveal his name for fear of retaliation.
“He is the sole provider for the family and no one knew where he was,” she said. When she called the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, where detainees are normally held, she was told he wasn't there. She then called at least half a dozen ICE processing centers and Customs and Border Patrol detention centers. Nothing. It took three days for his name to even appear in the system.
Wiliani said she only learned then that he was being held at “an undisclosed location” near the border. “This is very unusual. I can usually find my customers within 24 hours.”
Other immigration lawyers reported similar problems, adding to the collective concern. Throughout the week, immigrants filled common rooms as advocates held packed meetings with attorneys, offering legal assistance in the event they were stopped or arrested by agents.
Carina Sanchez attended one of these meetings in Delano with her 5-year-old son. As a counselor at a nearby elementary school, she said many of the students or their parents had no legal status.
“It makes me think about my children, my students.”
It's not clear exactly how many people were arrested, where they were being held or why El Centro agents were conducting operations so far from the border. And Border Patrol wouldn't provide details.
Border protection has authority Conduct vehicle searches within 100 miles of the U.S. border. Bakersfield is more than 200 miles from the border but about 100 air miles from the coast.
Elected officials on both sides of the political spectrum expressed concern about the enforcement actions.
Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, a Republican, said cartel members who engaged in criminal activity and who she believed were at the center of the operation should fear arrest. However, she expressed concern for “people who are unnecessarily afraid.”
“I am extremely concerned that these arrests may have been arbitrary or based on racial profiling,” said state Assembly member Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno). “Everyone in our state and nation deserves to be treated with dignity and respect – everyone is entitled to due process and constitutional rights.”
U.S. Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) said Customs and Border Protection told him they would arrest criminals or people with ties to criminal organizations.
“I call on the Biden administration to ensure that CBP prioritizes criminals rather than those responsible for our nation’s food supply,” he said. “We urgently need common-sense immigration reform that creates a path to earned legal status for hard-working individuals who contribute to our economy and removes those who threaten the safety of our communities.”
The United Farm Workers Foundation urged residents, if detained, to exercise their right to remain silent before speaking to an attorney. Ambar Tovar, senior attorney for the organization, said the community was reeling from days of increasing fear and uncertainty.
Tovar questioned whether border officials met the legal standard of reasonable suspicion required for such checks without an arrest warrant and said it plans to investigate whether border guards are responsible for some of the checks they carry out into the interior of the country.
“There is no reason to stop a car full of farmworkers on the way to work,” she said.
Late Thursday, a border official called Wiliani.
“He told me he was assigned to call me and then he had my client speak to me,” she said. He was still at a processing center somewhere in Imperial County but was set to be released the next day when he called Casarez to tell her he had a bus ticket home.
“He was free,” she said. “It was such a joy.”