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
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