Relentless immigration raids are changing California’s way of life

When immigration agents came to the farm where he worked, Jaime Alanis tried to hide.

Climbing to the roof of a greenhouse, while agents rounded up and arrested dozens of his coworkers below, Mr Alanis hoped to stay out of sight.

Then he fell.

His neck was broken and skull fractured. He died later in hospital.

Meanwhile, immigration agents fired teargas at a crowd of some 500 protestors, who had gathered to stop the raids outside two legal cannabis farms. Some threw rocks, and the FBI says one fired a gun at federal agents.

Mr Alanis’s death, and the violent clashes that ensued at those cannabis farms, are the latest examples of the kind of chaos that has swept across Southern California since the beginning of June, when immigration raids began to intensify in the region.

Those crackdowns sparked protests, which led to US President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard and US Marines, to protect federal officers from the demonstrators and to ensure that his mass deportations, which he had long promised, were carried out.

While many Americans support President Trump’s tough immigration policies, the relentlessness of the raids in the region has also triggered a fierce backlash from neighbours and activists. Southern California is home to an estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom have been forced into hiding – too afraid to go to work, school or even the grocery store.

In so doing, the raids have altered the landscape of one of the country’s most populous regions. Businesses are shuttered, cities have cancelled community events – including Fourth of July fireworks celebrations.

“Everyone’s looking over their shoulders,” says a “raspado” vendor in Los Angeles on a recent Sunday, where normally crowded soccer fields and picnic tables were mostly deserted. As she prepared the shaved ice with sweet strawberry syrup, she seemed wary of questions but grateful for a customer.

“It’s never like this,” she said.

The raids at the two cannabis farms are now being touted as the largest immigration operation since President Trump took office.

Of the 361 migrants detained during those raids, four had “extensive” criminal records, including rape, kidnapping, and attempted child molestation, media reported. Immigration officers also found 14 migrant children, who the administration claims have been “rescued from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking”.

While the administration frequently highlights the convicted rapists, murderers and drug dealers they have arrested in operations, scores of immigrants – many with no criminal convictions who have spent decades building businesses, families and homes – have been caught in the crosshairs.

“They just kidnap you,” says Carlos, who didn’t want his full last name used out of fear that he could be deported to his native Guatemala. He has been too afraid to go to work since his sister, Emma, was detained while selling tacos outside a Home Depot last month. “If I’m brown, if I’m Hispanic, they just come and catch you and take you.”

The Trump administration says claims that people are being targeted because of their skin colour are “disgusting” and false.

Carlos says he feels a bit safer since a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to stop “indiscriminately” detaining people with “roving patrols” of federal agents. But he doesn’t trust that they will stop, and he needs to go back to work.

“How am I going to pay my rent,” he says. “I’m stuck inside.”

Churches and immigrant rights groups have been organising food delivery for people in hiding. They have also been training people to protect immigrants out on the streets using apps, text chains and social media to alert people when federal agents are nearby.

When dozens of armed agents in camouflage descended on MacArthur Park on horseback and in armoured vehicles earlier this month, few were surprised.

Word had spread quickly of the operation – and rumours had swirled that “la migra” was coming hours before the troops arrived. Dozens of protesters swarmed in to greet the troops – including LA Mayor Karen Bass, who demanded they leave the park.

Witnesses say no arrests were made and no one was seen running to escape. By the time troops arrived – with professional looking camera crews recording the overt show of force – the only people in the park were protesters, some kids at a summer camp, and some homeless people asleep in the grass.

“It’s been gut wrenching,” says Betsy Bolte, who lives near the park and had showed up to protest and yell obscenities at the agents.

“It’s war against the people – the heart and soul of the economy. And it’s all intentional. It’s part of the plan,” she said, crying while showing reporters her footage.

Activists accuse the government of terrorising its own people.

“This is part of a programme of terror. From Los Angeles to the Central Coast, the Trump administration is weaponising the federal government and military against Californians,” says the advocacy group CAUSE.

But not all Californians agree.

President Trump won 38% of the ballots in November. Recently, the BBC featured the story of one woman who is still devoted to the president and his mass deportation plans, even while she’s locked up as an illegal immigrant.

And a lone Trump supporter showed up at the protest at the cannabis farm last week, only to be beaten and jeered at and spit on by protesters.

Perhaps ironically, the architect of many of President Trump’s deportation policies, is an Angeleno himself. Senior White House aide Stephen Miller was raised in liberal Santa Monica where even as a teenager he was known on conservative radio for condemning the use of Spanish in his school.

He told Fox News this week that California’s “violent” Democratic politicians who show up to protest were inciting violence against federal immigration agents.

“No city can aid and abet an invasion of this country over the will of the American people and the law enforcement officers empowered to enact the American people’s wills,” he said.

President Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan says Los Angeles has itself to blame because LA’s sanctuary laws prevent local law enforcement from cooperating with immigration agents inside jails, where they could detain immigrant offenders outside of the public eye.

“We’re going to double down, triple down on sanctuary cities,” Mr Homan told reporters, adding that they do not have such overt public raids in Florida because all the sheriffs there let immigration agents into the jails to detain immigrants.

“If they don’t let us arrest the bad guy in the county jail, they’re going to arrest them in the community. We’re going to arrest them at a work site.”

In Los Angeles, the impact of the month of raids is noticeable. In parks and neighbourhoods once bustling with shoppers, foot traffic, music and street vendors, the absence of familiar sounds is eerie.

There are 88 cities in LA County and many of them have cancelled public summer events due to the ongoing immigration enforcement activity.

“Many residents have expressed fear and uncertainty, leading them to remain indoors, refrain from work, and withdraw from daily public life,” the city of Huntington Park said in a statement about cancelled events. “Our priority is and will continue to be the safety and peace of mind of our community.

Now some immigrants are afraid to turn up for their scheduled hearings, because they are being detained outside court.

Pastor Ara Torosian of Cornerstone Church in West LA said the bulk of his Persian language congregants were asylum seekers. One couple with a three-year-old daughter were detained outside court when they showed up for what they thought was a “routine” hearing. Now they are in Texas at a family detention centre.

Five members of his congregation were detained in June – two of them on the street as Pastor Torosian filmed and begged the agents to stop.

“The are not criminals,” he said. “They were obeying everything, not hiding anything.”