Community groups are continuing efforts to rally support for undocumented residents of the Tri-Counties, as new reports surface of ICE operations locally. A coalition of groups rallied in Ventura Thursday afternoon to show opposition to the raids.
"Enough is enough, and the community is here to support that," said Primitiva Hernandez, Executive Director of the nonprofit group 805 Undocufund. She summarized people's anger at a news conference outside the Ventura County Government Center.
She said with the number of raids stepping up, about three dozen people were detained or arrested locally in the last week. Hernandez said federal agents have taken away 125 people in the Tri-Counties since the Trump Administration took office.
The Farm Bureau of Ventura County reported that on Thursday morning, in Oxnard alone, ICE agents tried to enter five local produce packing facilities without warrants, stopped some vehicles on roads frequently used by agricultural workers, and conducted ICE operations in more than 10 agricultural fields.
"What we witnessed this week was an all-out assault on the working-class immigrant community. We haven't seen workplace raids of this scale in many, many years," said Lucas Zucker, with the Ventura County-based immigrants rights group called CAUSE. "It's never been this militarized, with masked agents and unmarked cars, intended to strike fear in the hearts of our people."
Zucker said there have been some successes, with volunteers helping turn away ICE agents at some local farms because they didn’t have warrants.
Speakers called on the community to stand up by watching for and reporting ICE activity. They also called for government agencies to step up financially to help pay for legal support for undocumented immigrants caught up in ICE operations.
