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March 10, 2017 CapitalPress.com 5 No widespread crackdown on illegal immigrants seen in Yakima Valley By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement An arrest is made Feb. 7 during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. Groups prepare growers, workers for increased immigration raids Capital Press SALINAS, Calif. — Groups that serve the labor-in- tensive produce operations on California’s Central Coast say they’re unaware of any recent upsurge in immigration raids on farms, but they’re preparing members just in case. Western Growers is urging members to be ready for an increase in audits and raids by U.S. Immigration and Cus- toms Enforcement agents, and they’ve distributed guides of what growers and workers should do if agents show up at their gates. So, too, has the Sali- nas-based Grower-Shipper As- sociation, an advocacy group with a specialty in employ- ment law. “I’m not aware of any stepped-up ICE raids or en- gagements on the Central Coast, but there is some con- cern and fear, particularly among the agricultural worker community about such raids,” said James Bogart, GSA’s president and chief counsel. The GSA has sent its mem- bers a checklist of things to do and expect in the event of an ICE raid as well as a list of workers’ rights, he said. The topic of immigration enforcement has come up in California Strawberry Com- mission training sessions for field workers who’ve been promoted to supervisory roles, spokeswoman Carolyn O’Donnell said. “I think people are nervous in general, and not just grow- ers, about the current climate of what’s going on,” she said. “Certainly all the farming organizations including the commission … have advocat- ed for a viable guestworker program, and we still know that that’s really important. Not only are workers import- ant to the strawberry industry, but strawberries do provide pretty consistent work for laborers over many, many months.” O’Donnell said she hasn’t heard of any uptick in farm raids since President Donald Trump took office. But there’s buzz in the industry over re- ports that a Department of Homeland Security crack- down on gang activity in San- ta Cruz included detainments for immigration enforcement, she said. Growers and their advo- cates throughout the West took notice after ICE stopped a pair of worker transport vans in Woodburn, Ore., in late February. While the oper- ation may have been routine, it was magnified amid a con- tentious political atmosphere in the wake of Trump’s vows to crack down on illegal im- migration. Several agricultural em- ployers said during a la- bor conference in Yakima, Wash., in late February that the Trump administration’s arrests of criminal illegal im- migrants are causing appre- hension among workers. Western Growers advis- es members to prepare for increased worksite enforce- ment and renewed emphasis on Form I-9 audits, correcting problems before ICE comes knocking at the door. Form I-9 is used for verifying the identity and employment eli- gibility of workers. Even minor technical er- rors can bring fines of up to $1,100 for each instance, and the fine is much higher for missing I-9s, so employers should perform internal audits regularly and fix problems before receiving notices of inspection, Western Growers’ Jeff Janas told members in a blog post. Growers can face fines of up to $16,000 for knowingly hiring unautho- rized workers, he wrote. While a raid requires a search warrant but no ad- vance notification, an I-9 au- dit requires three days’ notice in writing, and ICE cannot use a subpoena to shortcut that, Western Growers advises. Farm operators should stay calm, but they can accompany agents and restrict their access to only materials covered in the warrant, a guide distributed by the group states. For workers, Western Growers points to a prepara- tion checklist published by the National Immigration Law Center. Among the center’s ad- vice to workers in a raid is to remain silent, ask to speak to a lawyer, not carry false doc- uments, have contact informa- tion for a reliable immigration attorney and know their “alien registration number” if they have one. 15-5/16 x 10 x 2 18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3 Dan Wheat/Capital Press Workers prune fruit trees south of Chelan, Wash., in January. Pruning is still going on throughout Central Washington but orchard and packing shed workers and owners are nervous about immigration enforcement. 250,000 illegal immigrants are in Washington, the Stokes Lawrence paper said. It also estimated that as many as 117,000 illegals may make up 70 percent or more of the workforce involved the state’s $10 billion annual agricultural production. The labor conference was sponsored by WAFLA, for- merly the Washington Farm Labor Association. Its direc- tor, Dan Fazio, said he doesn’t think there are any wide- spread federal raids but that ICE is “aggressively serving arrest warrants.” He said most warrants, about 90 percent, are served at residences. Past administrations, in- cluding that of former Pres- ident Barack Obama, have arrested criminal illegal im- migrants but the Trump ad- ministration directive allows ICE officers to also arrest noncriminal illegals. The Obama administration’s di- rectives had tighter restric- tions on that. Fazio said he’s concerned about workplace arrests caus- ing workers to flee but that he has “nothing but positive” to say about ICE so far. “Someone texts that there’s a raid and everyone runs and doesn’t come back for days. That’s what I’m concerned about,” Fazio said. “Congress needs to act. We need a workable guestworker program, E-verify (electronic verification of employment eligibility) and a solution for undocumented workers here now, in that order. The gov- ernment has shown it can’t administer a guestworker pro- gram and that should be a pri- ority,” he said. WAFLA is the largest West Coast provider of the federal H-2A-visa foreign guestwork- ers to growers. “Growers are freaking out because workers are afraid to come to work. I got a call Fri- day morning (Feb. 24) from a shellfish grower (in Western Washington) saying he won’t be able to stay in business (because he’s losing employ- ees),” Fazio said. He said federal agents could but he doesn’t think they will go after employers for knowingly employing il- legals, but Monahan said he wouldn’t make any assump- tions either way. Jesus Limon, an East Wenatchee grower with or- chards in Quincy and Orondo, said he’s heard of ICE agents being in Quincy and George once or twice in the past few weeks. It’s caused fear among workers who call each other and check on social media to ask if it’s safe to go to the gro- cery store, he said. “Guys doing bad stuff shouldn’t be here anyway, but I worry about them (ICE) taking good workers,” Limon said. It helps, he said, that he has few workers, that they live at his orchards and that he’s us- ing more H-2A workers for harvests. “I know more people are nervous because of all the mouth music. I haven’t seen any ICE trucks driving up or down the roads. Our president has been very clear what he wants. That would give any- one without good documents cause for pause,” said Mike Robinson, general manager of Double Diamond Fruit Co. in Quincy. He said he doesn’t know of anyone not coming to work out of fear and that it takes time to change direction of ICE. “There’s no way Mr. Trump could have turned this aircraft carrier around in a month. All of this noise is just noise,” Robinson said. Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, said he’s heard lots of concern and ru- mors but no direct reports of any arrests or ICE activities or workers staying home. 9-1/#7 By TIM HEARDEN YAKIMA, Wash. — While there’s a lot of apprehension among workers and employ- ers, there are apparently no widespread enforcement ac- tions in Central Washington because of the Trump ad- ministration’s crackdown on criminal illegal immigrants. Brendan Monahan, a Ya- kima attorney who represents large agricultural employers, told Capital Press he’s un- aware of any widespread raids or sweeps but that arrest war- rants have been served at Ya- kima Valley fruit warehouses for alleged illegal immigrants either charged with or con- victed of crimes. He would not identify the warehouses or say how many people have been arrested other than that it was more than one. He said the arrests were carried out with minimal dis- ruption to business operations and that employers are paying careful attention to federal directives to determine if any changes in immigration en- forcement may impact their operations. “From the employer standpoint, there is an aware- ness that any type of wide- spread government enforce- ment action can cause a range of confusion and panic in the workplace,” Monahan said. Lori Haley, a spokeswom- an with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said she could not verify the arrests and would not say if ICE is stepping up enforce- ment. Monahan’s law firm, Stokes Lawrence, handed out an update and guidance sheet to employers at a recent labor conference in Yakima that stated that as of Feb. 17 there were reports of ICE agents making unannounced visits at agricultural employers in the Columbia Basin, Pasco and the Lower Yakima Val- ley. Pew Research estimates CALL FOR PRICING AND AVAILABILITY. Delivery Available 503-588-8313 2561 Pringle Rd. SE Salem, OR 14 th Annual Orchard, Nuts & Vines Special Section Capital Press Agriculture Weekly will publish a Special Section featuring orchard, nut and vine articles and advertising on April 14, 2017 By advertising in this Special Section, you’ll be reaching over 89,000 print and online readers in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington who make the buying decisions for your product or service! 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