FRESNO, Calif. (KMJ/KFSN) — Central Valley fields are the “Breadbasket of the World,” but for farmworker Xochilt Nuñez, they are filled with a new reality: Fears about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Speaking in Spanish, Nuñez told Action News that many workers simply are not showing up to harvest the food that feeds the world.
Those who do, send someone ahead to look for authorities before showing up themselves.
Nuñez’s fear extended to the federal courthouse in Fresno on Monday, where plans for a protest were apparently scrapped over fears about federal officials being so close by.
“We’ve now seen two instances here of just widespread illegality and violations,” attorney Ajay Krishnan said.
He is part of a legal team taking the fight inside the courthouse.
The ACLU has sued the government. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s name is listed as a plaintiff.
The attorneys say the government’s raids, like Operation Return to Sender in January, “tore families apart and terrorized the community.”
They say it “violated the law.”
“The purpose of the motion is to make sure that there aren’t further legal violations during the course of the case,” Krishnan said.
The government pushed back in a courtroom closed to cameras. Attorneys from Washington disputed the facts and said the case was “moot.”
However, the judge signaled that it would proceed.
“It looks quite clear that they were just going around and rounding up brown people,” Krishnan said. “That seems to be what they were doing.”
The government claims immigration agents are already being retrained to conduct enforcement without profiling.
With a courtroom full of farm workers, the attorneys said other changes would burden the government.
Nuñez and her colleagues are now left waiting, still in fear, as the legal fight continues. Meanwhile, out in the fields, crops are starting to die.
The judge signaled a decision could come on Tuesday, the president’s 100th day in office, and it could impact how the president conducts immigration enforcement.
