In the first days of the first administration of President Trump, several Kern County organizations launched a line of advice that people could contact if they detected ongoing immigration application activities.
Almost three weeks ago, the direct line began to sound again. In panic voices, the people who call reported witnessing the border patrol agents of the United States who interrogated Latinos in parking lots and service stations, and arrested people in large quantities. In some cases, they said, a loved one had been arrested.
Kern's fast response network went into action. The organization staff and the volunteers moved in the Bakersfield area: to a home deposit, an exchange meeting and other places where the border patrol had been seen. While confirming the raids, they tried to document the scenes, including the violations of the rights or the use of force, as well as registering the names of the people arrested and interviewing witnesses.
By the time the operation of the border patrol of several days, 78 undocumented immigrants had been arrested, according to the sector of El Center for the Border Patrol.
The chief agent of the Border Patrol, Gregory K. Bovino, who directs the sector of El Centro in the Imperial Valle “Other criminals.” He said the agents also arrested people for being illegally in the United States.
Meanwhile, the defenders of the scene said that the operation of Latin agricultural workers and day workers directed indiscriminately, and that many more people were arrested. They questioned why the center agents, 300 miles to the south, were carrying out operations so far from the border.
Customs representatives and border protection of the United States and immigration control and customs did not respond to comments requests.
Although the fast response network is not designed to intervene in the raids, its members played a vital support role when the operation and offering a lawyer for those who were arrested, said Rosa López, a principal defender of the policy of the policy of the policy of the policy of the policy of the policy ACLU in southern California, who is a member in the Kern County Network.
Fast response networks emerged throughout the state during the first Trump administration. The community led by the community became a first line of defense for immigrants overwhelmed by the threats of raids and mass deportation.
The premise was simple: people who see immigration or border agents in their community call or send text messages to a direct line. A dispatcher notifies volunteers, who respond to the informed address to confirm if there is an active operation. If verified, the dispatcher can send a legal observer to monitor the situation, as well as a lawyer to provide legal assistance.
During the heyday of the pandemic, and with immigrants who face less deportation threats under the Biden administration, many networks turned to provide people with information about vaccines and food assistance.
But after Trump was chosen in November in the midst of promises to carry out the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States, local organizations are dusting the rapid response networks they built eight years ago.
In the first days of his new mandate, Trump issued a series of executive orders that closed legal routes to asylum and declared illegal immigration a national emergency on the southern border. The public feeling could be on his side. A recent New York Times and Ipsos survey found that 55% of Americans support strongly or somehow to illegally deport all immigrants in the country.
In addition to providing legal defense to immigrants arrested by the authorities, much of what the networks do is preventive. They inform community members about their rights to request an arrest warrant if ICE appears at their door and does not answer questions. They urge people to document the meeting and inform the incident. They also ensure that families have an emergency plan.
They use text messages and social networks to warn people of confirmed operations, and more often, to reduce rumors that can stimulate people to stay at home home and keep their children at school home.
“Our main objective is to build power, not in panic,” said Lisa Knox, executive director and legal director of California collaboration for the justice of immigrants, which supports rapid response networks throughout the state. “One of the most important roles that these community networks can perform is to disseminate precise information and dissipate erroneous information.”
Even before Trump was inaugurated this week, the rapid response networks were launched when the raids of the Bakersfield area unleashed a fear wave in the central valley, where a large -scale workforce helps harvest a quarter of food in the United States.
At least half of the 162,000 agricultural workers of the State are undocumented, according to the estimates of the Federal Labor Department and the investigation carried out by UC Merced. Many of these workers have children or spouses who were born here.
In the weeks after Bakersfield's raid, the Rapid Response Network of Kern network has helped distribute groceries to more than 200 families who have been afraid to leave their homes, and coordinated trips for people who fear leading themselves to work. The network partners are exploring emergency rent assistance for families who lost income after the raids.
“There is a high panic,” said Blanca Ojeda, an organizer of Faith in the Valley, who runs the Valley Watch Red, a quick response network that serves the communities from Kern to the San Joaquín counties. “The activity in Kern … only increased everyone's senses and made us a little more suspicious of all.”
Inland Empire's Rapid Rapid Response Network, which had not received a call in eight months, received almost 140 calls and text messages that warn him about the possible operations of application of immigration in the weeks after the Bakersfield operation, according to the interior coalition of immigrants justice.
Network volunteers have responded to more than 70 reports in the County of Riverside and San Bernardino. The group publishes updates on Instagram, which so far have served mainly to dissipate rumors of immigration agents. He had confirmed at least two on social networks until Friday afternoon.
Trying to respond to the reports of raids in a region that covers more than 27,000 square miles is not an easy task, said Javier Hernández, executive director of the coalition. To meet that demand, the inner empire network aims to have dispatators who speak English and Spanish available from 4 am to midnight daily, and is in the training process of 300 responders.
The Valley watches network faces a similar challenge. He has trained more than 90 people since the end of last year and is trying to recruit more legal observers to respond to possible application activities in the agricultural communities of San Joaquín Valle.
“We just want to mobilize as quickly as possible,” said Ojeda, “because it gives Ice the opportunity to leave that place, and then we have no evidence of what happened.”
This article is part of the times' Variable income report initiative, financed by him James Irvine Foundationexploring the challenges faced by low -income workers and the efforts that are being made to address The Economic Division of California.