{"id":66039,"date":"2025-11-23T04:12:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T04:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/66039\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T04:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T04:12:42","slug":"employers-and-labor-groups-are-trying-to-protect-workers-from-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/66039\/","title":{"rendered":"Employers and labor groups are trying to protect workers from ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story <\/a>is part of ICE vs. LA, a collaborative reporting project by\u00a0LA Public Press<\/a>,\u00a0CAL\u00d3 News<\/a>,\u00a0Capital & Main<\/a>,\u00a0Capital B<\/a>,\u00a0LA Taco<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Q Voice<\/a>. It is published here with permission.<\/p>\n

A lot of immigrants who are in the country illegally \u2014\u00a0and their employers \u2014 remember when the siege began. Federal immigration agents equipped with tactical gear and rifles\u00a0descended on downtown Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0in armored trucks on June 6, arresting dozens of workers at an apparel factory. Within hours, another group of agents raided a Home Depot a few miles away, arresting day laborers who were looking for work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those operations quickly became a flashpoint, sparking spontaneous\u00a0large-scale street protests<\/a>. But President Donald Trump\u2019s administration\u00a0doubled down<\/a>, and more high-profile raids followed as the White House sought to make good on\u00a0the president\u2019s promise<\/a>\u00a0to conduct the largest mass deportation program in the nation\u2019s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immigration agents have since conducted sweeps at\u00a0construction sites<\/a>,\u00a0restaurants<\/a>,\u00a0factories<\/a>,\u00a0car washes<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0farms<\/a>, upending life for undocumented workers nationwide. California estimates that nearly\u00a01.5 million<\/a>\u00a0undocumented workers call the state home.<\/p>\n

As militarized crackdowns have become more common in many parts of the country, employers and unions alike have taken new steps to protect their workers. In industries ranging from farmwork to garment production to food service, they have begun organizing defenses to make it harder for ICE to identify, detain and deport unauthorized immigrant employees who help keep their workplaces in business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the strategies vary, they share common goals: to find ways to inform immigrant workers about threats and, when possible, to shield them from detainment and deportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adopt a corner<\/p>\n

On Aug. 6, day laborers gathered in front of the same Home Depot in Los Angeles that had been raided two months earlier. Tensions were still high in the city with ongoing ICE and Customs and Border Patrol actions, but the workers needed some income.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the back door of a Penske rental truck slid open from the inside to reveal nearly a dozen CBP agents in body armor lying in wait. They surged toward unsuspecting laborers, many of whom scattered in fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The raid, dubbed \u201cOperation Trojan Horse<\/a>\u201d by the Department of Homeland Security and captured on camera by a\u00a0Fox News reporter embedded<\/a>\u00a0with the agents inside the truck, resulted in the arrests of more than a dozen immigrants.<\/p>\n

\"AJose Madera sits inside the radio room at the Pasadena Community Job Center, where day laborers regularly seek work. (Photo by Jeremy Lindenfeld\/Capital & Main)<\/p>\n

Similar raids earlier in the year inspired the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a labor group that advocates for improved working conditions, to create the\u00a0\u201cAdopt a Corner\u201d<\/a>\u00a0campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jose Madera, the director of the NDLON-affiliated Pasadena Community Job Center, said that the campaign encourages volunteers to go to places where immigrants regularly gather in search of work, to teach people about their rights. So far, volunteers have visited more than 100 locations across the country, Madera said.<\/p>\n

\u25b6 MORE: When ICE arrests US citizens, there\u2019s little clear path for what happens next<\/a><\/p>\n

The group\u2019s volunteers hand out \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d materials like red cards, which are pocket-sized cutouts that explain what anyone \u2014 regardless of immigration status \u2014 can do when confronted by an immigration officer. But since ICE officers frequently violate immigrants\u2019 rights, Madera alleged, people who adopt a corner can help workers in a more immediate way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pasadena Community Job Center also tells people in the community to record actions by authorities on cellphones so that when there is a raid, \u201cthere can be someone documenting the abuse, the violence, people\u2019s constitutional rights being violated,\u201d Madera said.<\/p>\n

Organizers hope that documentation can serve both as evidence in lawsuits or in immigration courts, and as proof to show the public how the Trump administration is conducting immigration enforcement operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany Americans do not want to see this type of violence \u2014 masked men in unmarked cars, armed to the teeth, going into communities and causing this terror,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to Capital & Main\u2019s requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the fields<\/p>\n

Federal agents staged\u00a0massive immigration raids<\/a>\u00a0on a pair of California cannabis farms in the cities of Carpinteria and Camarillo on July 10, blocking roads with armored vehicles, launching tear gas and firing crowd control munitions at protesters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amid the chaos, Jaime Alanis Garcia \u2014 who had worked at Glass House Farms for a decade \u2014 was fleeing from immigration officers when he fell 30 feet from the roof of a greenhouse, fracturing his neck and skull, according to\u00a0NBC<\/a>. Two days later, he died.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At those raids, federal agents arrested 361 people, including American citizen and\u00a0U.S. Army veteran George Retes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"StacksHay is stacked in front of an open field in Imperial County, near the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo by Jeremy Lindenfeld\/Capital & Main)<\/p>\n

More than a quarter<\/a>\u00a0of the state\u2019s large agricultural workforce is undocumented \u2014 and nearly two-thirds are immigrants, more generally \u2014 leaving hundreds of thousands of laborers vulnerable to immigration crackdowns at work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since even before the Glass House Farms raids, the United Farm Workers union has been reaching out to employers to suggest ways to protect their employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Strater, vice president of UFW, told Capital & Main that one of the simplest things farmers can do is put up gates and fences to keep intruders out. For large fields that are too difficult or costly to encircle, Strater recommends a more impromptu tactic that, ironically, is sometimes used by law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re out in flat, open fields where you can\u2019t put a gate, what you can do is have the foreman, or whoever, park their vehicle so that it prevents access (by) someone who may not have your workers\u2019 best interest at heart,\u201d Strater said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such physical barriers are critical, Strater said, because while workers who are in the U.S. illegally are protected by constitutional and statutory rights, federal agents have repeatedly been recorded ignoring basic protections.<\/p>\n

Undocumented workers \u201chave a right not to answer questions, but what happens when they assert that right is these absolutely unhinged, untrained, uncontrolled agents\u00a0smash their windows and drag them out of their cars<\/a>,\u201d Strater said. \u201cThe utter lawlessness on behalf of these agencies is just extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond providing employers with resources, UFW has taken\u00a0legal action<\/a>\u00a0against the DHS, which Strater said has helped reduce the number of indiscriminate raids on farmworkers in certain areas of California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, federal agencies can obtain criminal warrants to go after workers at specific sites, according to Strater.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not all farm owners are taking action in response to workplace raids, but Strater said that most, including nonunionized operations, have been receptive to UFW\u2019s recommendations. Some have even hosted community meetings to develop plans that could lessen the impact of immigration enforcement on workers and, by extension, the businesses that employ them, some of which have\u00a0been hit by labor shortages<\/a>\u00a0triggered by the raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The factory floor<\/p>\n

Many clothing manufacturing businesses in Los Angeles have also been open to outreach aimed at protecting employees, according to Daisy Gonzalez, campaign director at the\u00a0Garment Worker Center.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new sort of reaction to us. \u2026 Garment Worker Center is a workers\u2019 rights organization, and often employers are not that receptive to that,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cBut I think information about what to do in this moment, employers understand it\u2019s a resource for both their workers and themselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PersonDaisy Gonzalez, shown at the Garment Worker Center in downtown Los Angeles, is involved in outreach to clothing manufacturers aimed at protecting employees. (Photo by Jeremy Lindenfeld\/Capital & Main)<\/p>\n

Since the high-profile raids in June, many of the Garment Worker Center\u2019s members have been worried about being detained on the job. Some have opted to stay home from work \u2014 for months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response, Gonzalez said, the Garment Worker Center has significantly ramped up its mutual aid programs, providing financial assistance to affected employees and even delivering resources to home-bound workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One middle-aged undocumented worker in Los Angeles, who spoke to Capital & Main on the condition of anonymity for fear that immigration officials would detain him, said the garment factory where he was working closed permanently after immigration raids began. If it were not for the Garment Worker Center\u2019s financial support, he added, he would not have been able to pay for food or rent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe raids have deeply affected me, both psychologically and economically,\u201d he said in an interview in Spanish. \u201cThere\u2019s panic in the streets. I try to leave the house as infrequently as I can. I speak for myself, but there are thousands of people just like me, many in worse situations. \u2026 This is a national emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undocumented migrants aren\u2019t the only ones potentially impacted by raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September, the U.S. Supreme Court\u00a0concluded that DHS officers<\/a>\u00a0could detain people based on their race, their use of Spanish or accented English, their occupation or their presence at locations such as car washes, agricultural or day labor sites.<\/p>\n

The result is that many immigrants with residency, U.S. citizens and their American-born children can get caught up in aggressive raids. To Gonzalez, \u201cAnyone who has a darker skin tone, or speaks a different language, or works in an industry that might be where certain people expect undocumented immigrants to work, are all targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serve and protect<\/p>\n

On a busy street in L.A.\u2019s Los Feliz neighborhood, customers line up to order tacos and burritos outside a small hut. Yuca\u2019s is a modest operation with no inside seating, but it has been in business for nearly half a century, becoming a staple of the city\u2019s Mexican-food scene and even winning a prestigious James Beard Foundation Award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dora Herrera, the restaurant\u2019s co-owner, delights in being able to serve her local community, but since the Trump administration\u2019s ramped-up immigration raids began, she has worried intensely about Yuca\u2019s customers, vendors and workers, whom she considers \u201cfamily.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PersonDora Herrera stands outside Yuca\u2019s Los Feliz location, where she has posted private-property signs to keep ICE out. (Photo by Jeremy Lindenfeld\/Capital & Main)<\/p>\n

Herrera sought advice from organizations like the Latino Restaurant Association about how to protect her staff, regardless of their immigration status, as she has seen reports of federal agents arresting\u00a0U.S. citizens<\/a>,\u00a0green-card holders<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0immigrants with work permits<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She has provided her employees with Know Your Rights materials like red cards and, for the first time since the restaurant opened in 1976, installed signs on the outside of the building declaring it private property. The law requires officers to produce a warrant to gain access to private property.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been around for 50 years for nothing. You learn something, you adapt, and you keep adapting to make it work,\u201d Herrera said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such measures are far from foolproof but, according to Herrera, it is incumbent on people like her to do what they can to keep vulnerable workers as safe as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure everybody\u2019s taken care of, protected, educated,\u201d Herrera said. \u201cAs an employer, I believe you have to do everything, absolutely everything you can, to protect your people, even the smallest thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capital & Main<\/a> is an award-winning nonprofit publication that reports from California on the most pressing economic, environmental and social issues of our time, including economic inequality, climate change, health care, threats to democracy, hate and extremism and immigration.\u200b<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Capital & Main<\/p>\n

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