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San Francisco Chronicle
7 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area day laborers say they live in fear of ICE raids: ‘We just come here to find work'
On the edge of the parking lot of a Home Depot in Alameda County this past week, a woman sold a warm cup of atole, a traditional masa-based drink from Mexico, to a man and his son. She had just returned to her post after a week of hiding at home with her 12-year-old son after hearing rumors of an ICE raid nearby. 'I would rather lose a day of work than risk something happening to me,' said the woman, who declined to share her name due to fear of immigration authorities. However, she said she could not afford to stay home any longer. Across from her small stand were nearly a dozen men grappling with the same dilemma — day laborers who are hired for all manner of jobs by customers looking for skilled help at a low price, but who are now fearful that the public way they solicit work might make them targets of President Donald Trump's mass deportation effort. Around the Bay Area, some immigrant advocates have reported that fewer day laborers are gathering at their usual spots outside home improvement stores, moving-truck rental shops and gas stations. But on this day in Alameda County, the men rushed toward vehicles that pulled up. They needed the work. 'We are a little scared because we don't come (to the U.S.) to rob, we come here to work, to give our children a better life,' said a Guatemalan man who also asked not to be identified by name. This month, as part of a broader series of raids in Los Angeles, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more than 40 laborers in operations outside a Home Depot and at the workplace of a clothing manufacturer. Immigrant advocates worry that similar raids could occur in the Bay Area, though no actions have yet been reported. 'We feel like it's going to happen,' said Luis Valentan, the west coast regional director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. 'The administration is creating a really, really hostile environment and we don't see workers as we did before.' Trump administration officials have said undocumented workers take jobs that could go to Americans. But advocates say they mostly do jobs no one else wants — a sentiment echoed by Trump himself on social media. Moreover, some advocates say targeting day laborers would amount to racial profiling. Gabriela Galicia, executive director of Street Level Health Project, a nonprofit in Oakland that seeks to aid vulnerable immigrants including day laborers, said she and her staff have begun carrying around proof of citizenship because they fear being targeted by ICE for being Latino. 'People are scared,' Galicia said. 'They think that at any time they could be stopped.' Roberto Hernandez, the CEO of Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Americas, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that promotes indigenous cultures and healing practices, said arresting day laborers is 'part of Trump's racist targeting of Latinos in this country' and goes against the president's rhetoric about focusing enforcement on criminals. 'A criminal is not going to be at Home Depot looking for work for the pay that a day laborer makes,' Hernandez said. In interviews, many immigrants who rely on day labor work — typically construction, painting, roofing and gardening — said they had no choice but to risk their safety to put food on the table. 'It's not fair,' said a Guatemalan man at the Alameda County Home Depot, who recounted arriving alone to the U.S. five years ago. ICE officials did not return a request for comment for this story. Home Depot said in a statement that the company is not informed of ICE enforcement. 'We aren't notified that ICE activities are going to happen, and in many cases, we don't know that arrests have taken place until after they're over,' the company said. ICE data shows that arrests in Northern California have increased roughly 70% this year, compared to the final six months of the Biden administration. While arrests of convicted criminals grew, arrests of people who were suspected only of immigration-related violations, or had pending charges, went up much faster. The Trump administration has said it intends to reach arrest quotas of 3,000 people per day. To achieve those goals, ICE has begun targeting immigrants who have been vetted and given a legal status to stay in the country, versus focusing on only those with criminal histories. It's not clear how many day laborers toil in California. A 2007 report by the California Economic Policy Center found there were at least 40,000, and that 80% were undocumented. Studies have shown that they are frequently exploited, with poor working conditions and stolen pay. These problems and others have prompted the creation of day labor centers run by nonprofit organizations in San Francisco, Oakland and elsewhere in the Bay Area, which work to protect day laborers, while helping them secure consistent jobs and wages. Though day laborers typically wait in parking lots until potential employers drive up offering work, San Francisco has a day labor center where people can make hires through a more formal process. Hernandez said he lives about a block away from an informal gathering spot for day laborers in the city's Mission District. In recent days, he said, he has rarely seen the usual throng of people waiting for work. Meanwhile, he's seen an uptick of people coming to the Mission Food Hub, a food bank. 'What I've consistently been hearing from a lot of them is that they don't want to be out on the street because of the fear of ICE, which then impacts your ability to pay your rent, put food on your table,' Hernandez said. 'That feeling scared, feeling depressed, feeling fearful — it's at an all-time high.' The mood in Oakland is similar, Galicia said her organization, which recently lost $400,000 in funding from the city due to budget woes, regularly checks on day laborers who gather at six locations. 'There is a lot of fear and panic even just seeing cars passing by that may look suspicious,' Galicia said. 'Whenever there are reports of ICE in the community, we see a decrease in the day laborer community.' On a recent day outside a Home Depot in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, laborers said they hadn't seen any federal immigration officers. Some expressed concern that could change, but felt resigned. A day later, rumors circulated that federal agents had shown up at the store, but Galicia said that dispatchers from Alameda County's rapid response network, which responds to ICE operations, had not verified those sightings. And so the rhythm of the workers' lives continued. One man in Fruitvale, who also declined to share his name due to fear of being deported, said he used his earnings to support his wife and their two children, a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. The couple, he said, left their home in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, five years ago seeking to escape poverty and crime. They crossed the border by foot, a journey of several days through the Sonoran desert. Now, he splits his time between different spots outside Home Depots — wherever he can land the best jobs. 'If they come, what can we do? There's nothing we can do,' he said. 'We just come here to find work.'
Atlantic
a day ago
- Politics
- Atlantic
America Just Beat Up These Marines' Dad
The four men in jeans and tactical vests labeled Police: U.S. Border Patrol had Narciso Barranco surrounded. Their masks and hats concealed their faces, so that only their eyes were visible. When they'd approached him, he was doing landscape work outside of an IHOP in Santa Ana, California. Frightened, Barranco attempted to run away. By the time a bystander started filming, the agents had caught him and pinned him, face down, on the road. One crouches and begins to pummel him, repeatedly, in the head. You can hear Barranco moaning in pain. Eventually, the masked men drag him to his feet and try to shove him into an SUV. When Barranco resists, one agent takes a rod and wedges it under his neck, attempting to steer him into the vehicle as if prodding livestock. Barranco is the father of three sons, all of them United States Marines. The eldest brother is a veteran, and the younger men are on active duty. At any moment, the same president who sent an emboldened ICE after their father could also command them into battle. That president has described Latinos as 'criminals' and 'anchor babies,' but the Barrancos and so many like them, immigrants or the children of immigrants, are not 'invading' America; they're defending it. In 2015, 12 percent of active-duty service members identified as Hispanic. By 2023, that number had increased to 19.5 percent. In the Marine Corps, the proportion was closer to 28 percent. Latinas are more represented in the military than in the civilian workforce—21 percent of enlisted women compared with 18 percent of working women. (One explanation might be the military's guaranteed equal pay: In the civilian workforce, Latinas earn just 65 cents on the dollar compared with white men.) Communities of color have long been targets for military recruitment. When I went to public high school in Brooklyn in the '90s, recruitment officers used to visit classrooms. The military offers financial stability, a route to college. But for many Latinos, as for other immigrant groups, it offers more: a path to belonging, whether for citizens who have been treated as outsiders in their own nation, or for the undocumented. Immigrants who serve at least a year in any branch of the armed forces can become eligible for naturalized citizenship. In 1917, just before entering World War I, the United States passed the Jones-Shafroth Act, bestowing citizenship (but not a right to representation) on Puerto Ricans. This would have the effect of making them eligible for the draft when it was instituted a few months later. An estimated 18,000 to 20,000 Puerto Rican recruits were soon shipped off to fight in Europe. During World War II, approximately 15,000 Mexican nationals fought in American uniforms, many earning citizenship. This was in addition to the 500,000 American Latinos of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent who enlisted and fought for their country, including my own grandfather. He was a decorated member of the 9th Infantry Division who fought in Tunisia, landed in Normandy, and was one of the first American soldiers to make it into Germany. He was proud of his role in history, but also of the lifelong friendships that he, a Puerto Rican man from Brooklyn, had with veterans from across the country. In one oral history, Armando Flores, a veteran of World War II, recounts a lieutenant scolding him in his early days of service: 'American soldiers stand at attention.' Rather than feeling chastened, Flores was stunned. ' Nobody had ever called me an American until that time.' Hispanic veterans came home to a country where signs were posted in Texas restaurant windows announcing: No Dogs Negroes Mexicans. Like their African American counterparts, many were the victims of redlining that prevented them from buying homes. Latino veterans created the American GI Forum to demand that benefits such as medical care and burial rights be available to Latino as well as white veterans. During the Vietnam War, Latinos were about 5 percent of the U.S. population, but they accounted for an estimated 20 percent of the 60,000 American casualties. This country has a long history of treating the veterans who have served it shoddily. And yet what's happening now—as Donald Trump's agents violently detain some Latinos in the streets as other Latinos serve their country in strikes against Iran—feels extreme. Johnathan Hernandez, a city councilman in Santa Ana, where Barranco was beaten, describes what's happening in his community as a kind of war itself. Santa Ana is 77 percent Hispanic. It has become a popular target for ICE. Hernandez told me that he is seeing 'a culture of fear, a culture of people not feeling safe, and people feeling under attack.' He said he worked to get the video posted on social media because no one knew who the man in it was, and he hoped that someone in the tight-knit community could identify him. 'Because of the fact that these agents are unidentified and they're taking people without due process, it means that you're leaving very little for a family to be able to put the pieces together and find their loved ones,' he said. A woman saw the video on Instagram and commented that it was her friends' father. Nearly 24 hours after the violent encounter, Barranco's eldest son, Alejandro, was able to finally make contact with his father, who said he still had not received medical care, and that he was hungry and thirsty. (The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Barranco had 'assaulted' agents with his string trimmer— sharing a video in which he can be seen turning toward the agents and briefly lifting it—and that he had declined medical care.) In interviews with news agencies, Alejandro said that he and his brothers 'feel hurt; we feel betrayed.' Their father taught them to 'respect this country, thank this country, and then that led us to join the Marine Corps and kind of give back to the country and be thankful,' he said. Alejandro was deployed to Kabul in 2021, when the U.S. was evacuating from Afghanistan. Had a Marine treated a detainee the way that the Border Patrol agents treated his father, he told MSNBC, it would have been considered a war crime. He also spoke with Task & Purpose, which covers the military. 'I don't believe that they followed their training,' he said about the agents. 'Repeatedly punching a man in the face while he's on the ground while he's been maced or pepper-sprayed, I don't believe that that was in their training.' (He also noted that the agents could be seen running with their weapons, which is 'a very unprofessional way of holding a firearm.') Many Latinos are sharing in the Barranco family's trauma. We are a highly diverse identity group, whose common bonds can feel tenuous at best. Forty-eight percent of the Latinos who voted in the 2024 election chose Trump—and many Latino members of the military, which tends to lean more conservative than the general population, were probably among them. And yet even some of those Trump voters, seeing on a daily basis the violence and haphazard cruelty with which the Trump administration is executing its mass-deportation agenda, must share my terror and anger. (ICE's recent actions have already led some of Trump's supporters to regret their vote.) How can any Latinos feel secure if 'looking' Hispanic or speaking Spanish or even going to Home Depot puts you at risk? How would you feel if you were deployed half a world away and wondering each day if your mother or father or sister or brother or wife might have been snatched up by ICE? This is a personal question for Latino soldiers, but it is a personnel question for the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security, who have to worry about military morale as an essential dimension of combat power. The psychological toll of ICE raids isn't borne only by the new immigrants whom Trump calls 'invaders,' but also by many of the Americans tasked with protecting us from real foreign threats. In the barracks at Camp Pendleton where the younger Barranco brothers sleep, they must be struggling to focus on their mission while fearing for the safety of their father in the hands of the very government they are sworn to defend.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Accounts Likely To Be Less Helpful To Latinos Than Promised
Bunch of Dollars Many view the following proposal as a gift for a good start in life: the federal government will provide a one-time payment of $1,000 to each child born in the U.S. According to the official White House statement, these Trump Accounts 'will afford a generation of children the chance to experience the miracle of compounded growth and set them on a course for prosperity from the very beginning.' The question before us is whether those accounts, proposed in the One Big Beautiful Bill, can serve as a tool to reduce the wealth gap and increase the chances of individual economic success. Looking at these accounts through a Latino lens reveals that, as in most things, the details matter. The Trump Accounts And Latinos To qualify, a child must be a U.S. citizen and have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or a lawful resident with a valid Social Security number who pays taxes. If the parent is married, the spouse also needs a Social Security number. This excludes children with even one undocumented parent, those living with a grandparent on a small retirement income who doesn't need to file taxes, or children raised by relatives or family friends who are neither legal guardians nor adoptive parents and can't claim them as dependents. In short, it makes many children in the most vulnerable social and economic situations ineligible. A Latina mom, who asked to stay anonymous for privacy, said, 'Why are they hurting kids who have done nothing wrong? Why is it the kids' fault if parents are undocumented? Maybe the kid they won't help could have cured cancer.' A $1,000 initial deposit is a good start. However, to truly set a child on a path toward financial success, the Trump Account would need to grow significantly more than what a single $1,000 deposit can generate. Over 18 years, according to basic compound interest principles, the amount produced by the initial deposit is likely to be less than $5,000 before taxes are applied. The Tax Law Center at New York University's College of Law notes that '{T}he benefits offered by these accounts are modest.' Given the economic conditions of many Latino families, their children are likely to receive significantly less money than what is needed to start their journey toward prosperity. A Latino parent, who did not provide their name for privacy reasons, asked, 'Why not give more to people who need it? Why give it to people who do not need it? This is the government pretending to help working people, but they don't really help us.' Options For Growing A Trump Account Are Out Of Reach For Many Latinos U.S. Gold Coins Once a Trump Account is opened, families can deposit up to $5,000 annually, adjusted for inflation, until the child reaches the age of 18. Investing $5,000 each year at a 7% annual return will grow the value of the Trump Account to $173,375 by the time the child turns 18. That is a significant amount—enough to cover many college expenses, make a sizable down payment on a first home, or fund an entrepreneurial venture, all of which qualify as allowable expenses. This means that to give children the best chance at reaching economic prosperity, a family would need to deposit about $416 each month into each of their children's accounts for 18 years. However, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey, the median household income for a Latino family is $69,869, which is roughly $5,740 per month before taxes, making such a yearly deposit likely unaffordable. As a result, many Latinos who need this support to increase the likelihood that their children will achieve economic prosperity probably won't benefit from the Trump Accounts. A Latino parent who wished to remain anonymous to protect their privacy added, 'Everyone who benefits is the people with money. The $1,000 is no good unless you can add more to it. I can barely pay my bills. I have no retirement, I want more for my kids, but how can I put away money for their education when I have to pay rent?' Another factor to consider regarding the usefulness of Trump Accounts in helping young Latinos, in particular, achieve economic prosperity is the tax liability associated with these accounts. Few would refuse $1,000 to open a savings account for their child. Nonetheless, because withdrawals from a Trump Account are limited and taxed at federal, state, and local levels, it's essential to recognize that, in addition to regular contributions, there must be ways to offset the tax burden to maximize the benefit of such an initial cash infusion. The non-partisan Urban Institute notes, 'parents with lower incomes would be better off using traditional investment vehicles to save for their child's future.' Any contributions to the Trump Accounts are made with after-tax dollars. Meanwhile, withdrawals from the Trump Account for approved expenses, such as costs related to first-time homeownership or higher education, are taxed at a long-term capital gains rate. In other words, the amount of money people believe is in the account—whether the total is based solely on the initial $1,000 deposit or on additional contributions—will be less than the actual balance. Additionally, these withdrawals could be subject to state and local taxes. There is a further complication. It is associated with investment requirements, including the requirement that all funds in a Trump Account must be invested in a high-risk portfolio of corporate equities, making safe, short-term investment strategies impossible. The knowledge about investments and taxes that parents need to understand to navigate the complexities of investments generally, and Trump Accounts specifically, puts Latino children at a significant disadvantage. Access to knowledgeable and trusted financial advisers—often necessary for making informed decisions—requires substantial financial resources and expertise. Among racial and ethnic groups, Latinos have the lowest rates of college completion and per capita income, both of which hinder their ability to access sound financial advice that would help them evaluate options and choose the best course of action for their children. A Latina mother of three, who chose to remain anonymous to protect her privacy, said, 'Investing is hard and it's complicated. Why not set up something local that we can trust, will teach us how to invest, and really help our kids?' She added, 'When I heard it was taxed, I knew it would not help us. The promise of helping kids whose parents work hard but don't make a lot of money is not a real promise.' The Trump Accounts And The Latino Wealth Gap The Latino wealth gap is significant and persistent. A young Latina mother, who did not give her name to protect her privacy, said, 'We all want what everybody wants, a chance for our kids to do better. Why won't people in charge help us give our kids what their kids have?' She went on to say, 'I don't want nothing for free. I just want a chance for my kids to live well and be good to others.' The Trump Accounts are unlikely to significantly reduce the Latino wealth gap. In 2010, economists Darrick Hamilton and William Darity Jr. proposed Baby Bonds as a policy to address the racial wealth divide. However, the high initial costs and the difficulty of deciding who qualifies for the Bonds and how much to provide have made it politically challenging. The Trump Accounts are a scaled-down version of Baby Bonds. Options For The Trump Accounts To Help Latinos Suppose the Trump administration, along with congressional and state officials, academics, business leaders, and community leaders, work together with a shared commitment to significantly greater economic equity than we currently have. In that case, there is an opportunity to develop and implement policies that could help place children, regardless of their parents' economic situation, on a path to economic prosperity. This can be achieved in various ways, including combining two strategies for economic success. First, establish programs and policies, such as Baby Bonds, that make substantial public investments in children, significantly increasing the chances that children from families and communities with limited economic opportunities can be securely positioned on a path toward economic success. The second is to make access to higher education, homeownership, or starting a business more accessible and affordable for those who have historically faced, and continue to face, barriers to equitable access and potential economic success.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: Two readers disagree over claims of racial profiling in ICE raids
To the editor: Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin denies that the agency is engaging in racial profiling, calling the claims 'disgusting and categorically FALSE' (''Scared to be brown': California residents fearful amid immigration raids,' June 25). Oh, please. Then tell me why Immigration and Customs Enforcement is targeting Home Depot, farms, car washes and other places where there is a large Latino presence. I believe what I see, not the lies that this administration is telling us. What is disgusting is hearing of hardworking people being terrorized likely due to the color of their skin. Holly Gordon, Fountain Valley .. To the editor: My Latino gardener and housekeeper aren't scared whatsoever. Why? Because they came into the country legally and followed the rules of procedure to become either a U.S. citizen or obtain eligibility for a work permit. Therefore, it's just a matter of legality; by observing those rules, legal immigrants and U.S.-born Latinos would never have to fear ICE raids. Eloise Hart, Brentwood
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Asian American leaders urge their communities to stand by Latinos, denounce ICE raids
As federal immigration raids continue to upend life in Los Angeles, Asian American leaders are rallying their communities to raise their voices in support of Latinos, who have been the primary targets of the enforcement sweeps, warning that neighborhoods frequented by Asian immigrants could be next. Organizers say many Asian immigrants have already been affected by the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants working in the country without documentation. Dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose deportation orders had been on indefinite hold have been detained after showing up for routine check-ins at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, according to immigration attorneys and advocacy groups. In recent months, a number of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese immigrants whose deportation orders had been stayed — in some cases for decades — have been told that those orders will now be enforced. The Asian immigrants being targeted are generally people who were convicted of a crime after arriving in the U.S., making them eligible for deportation after their release from jail or prison. In most cases, ICE never followed through because the immigrants had lived in the U.S. long enough that their home countries no longer recognized them as citizens. 'Our community is much more silent, but we are being detained in really high numbers,' said Connie Chung Joe, chief executive of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. 'There's such a stigma and fear that, unlike the Latinx community that wants to fight and speak out about the injustices, our community's first reaction is to go down and get more and more hidden.' On Thursday, more than a half dozen leaders representing Thai, Japanese and South Asian communities held a news conference in Little Tokyo urging community members to stand together and denounce the federal action as an overreach. President Trump came into office in January vowing to target violent criminals for deportation. But amid pressure to raise deportation numbers, administration officials in recent months have shifted their focus to farmworkers, landscapers, street vendors and other day laborers, many of whom have been working in the country for decades. While an estimated 79% of undocumented residents in L.A. County are natives of Mexico and Central America, Asian immigrants make up the second-largest group, constituting 16% of people in the county without legal authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Across the U.S., Indians make up the third-largest group of undocumented residents, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans. According to the Pew Research Center, the L.A. metropolitan area is home to the largest populations of Cambodians, Koreans, Indonesians, Filipinos, Thai and Vietnamese people in the U.S. So far, the highest profile raids in Southern California have centered on Latino neighborhoods, targeting car washes, restaurants, home improvement stores, churches and other locales where undocumented residents gather and work. But Asian businesses have not been immune. A raid outside a Home Depot in Hollywood happened across the street from Thai Town, where organizers have seen ICE agents patrolling the streets. In late May, Dept. of Homeland Security agents raided a Los Angeles-area nightclub, arresting 36 people they said were Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants in the country without authorization. In Little Bangladesh, immigration agents recently detained 16 people outside a grocery store, according to Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 community-based organizations. 'They will come for us even more in the coming days and weeks,' Kulkarni said. 'So we are only protected when we're in solidarity with our fellow Angelenos.' From June 1 to 10, at the start of the federal sweeps, ICE data shows that 722 people were arrested in the Los Angeles region. The figures were obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a repository of enforcement data at UC Berkeley Law. A Times analysis found that 69% of those arrested during that period had no criminal convictions. Nearly 48% were Mexican, 16% were from Guatemala and 8% from El Salvador. Forty-seven of the 722 individuals detained — or about 6% — were from Asian countries. 'We know the fear is widespread and it is deep,' said Assemblymember Mike Fong, a Democrat whose district takes in Monterey Park and West San Gabriel Valley, areas with large Asian immigrant populations. Los Angeles City Council members Nithya Raman and Ysabel Jurado spoke of the repercussions the raids were having on immigrant communities. Raman is Indian American, and Jurado is Filipino American. Jurado said undocumented Filipinos make up a sizeable portion of the region's caregivers, tending to both elderly people and young children. 'Their work reflects the deepest values of our communities: compassion, service and interdependence,' Jurado said. 'Their labor is essential, and their humanity must be honored.' Jurado and Raman called on the federal government to end the raids. 'This is such an important moment to speak out and to ensure that the Latino community does not feel alone,' Raman said. 'I also want to make it clear to every single person who is Asian American, these aren't just raids on others. They're raids on us.' Staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report. This article is part of The Times' equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California's economic divide.
