Immigration Raids Reported in Bakersfield

Opinion for The Latino Newsletter

Editor’s Note: Arturo Domínguez filed commentary and news pieces for Latino Rebels from 2018 to 2023. This is his debut for The Latino Newsletter.

On Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) conducted raids on farms, job sites, gas stations, and a Home Depot along with traffic stops in Bakersfield, California. According to what an assistant chief told a citizen journalist, the agent stated they have “reasonable suspicion” but admitted they don’t know each individual’s case.

Has a coordinated effort to profile Latinos begun?

While President-elect Donald Trump has yet to take office, CBP agents have little to fear regarding accountability. Meanwhile, it seems clear that an individual’s right to due process and constitutional rights are being violated under the 4th Amendment when agents reportedly separate families and refuse to inform relatives about where their loved ones are being transported.

I have been sent countless videos from migrant families documenting the arrests, along with the empty job sites, farms, and retail stores on Thursday.

Initially, those who sent me the videos said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also conducted raids in Bakersfield, but local reports confirmed that ICE was not involved.

CBP issued a general statement about the raids, saying, “The U.S. Border Patrol conducts targeted enforcement arrests of individuals involved in smuggling throughout our areas of operation as part of our efforts to dismantle transnational criminal organizations.”

However, they did not address the roundups of dozens of Latinos, which counters the “targeted enforcement arrests” explanation. I reached out to CBP and several lawmakers seeking comment about profiling and rumors of U.S. citizens being rounded up in these arrests. I have not received a response as of this writing.

CBP’s actions may have inadvertently created more motivation for an upcoming week-long migrant labor strike from January 11-18.

History Repeats

While commentators have cited Operation Wetback under former president Dwight D. Eisenhower and compared it to Trump’s mass deportation plans, this all didn’t start with Eisenhower or Trump. Former president Theodore Roosevelt embraced the idea of villainizing Mexican immigrants during the Reconstruction Era by laying the groundwork for questioning the loyalty of the “hyphenated American.”

Former President Woodrow Wilson also questioned hyphenated Americans.

After Wilson held a screening of “Birth of a Nation,” a white supremacist propaganda film depicting the Ku Klux Klan targeting Black people and painting the men in hoods on horseback as white saviors, he began pushing harder to stop Mexicans from entering the United States amid the invasion of Veracruz in 1914 and a larger full-scale invasion of Mexico in 1916 to put down a revolution that would have had drastic negative impacts on U.S. businesses.

This same mentality exists today and is used implicitly to target Black people and other non-white groups. Terms like African-American, Mexican-American, Cuban-American, Chinese-American, etc. are titles placed upon nonwhite groups by society at large. Similar to different forms of “othering” various groups, labels are placed on them to isolate and ostracize people who don’t fit the white male narrative. 

When discussing Trump’s policies, their foundations are an ugly part of American history. From invading Mexico to targeting marginalized groups to mass deporting Latino immigrants, those who can’t simply be labeled as “white” are targets of the current far-right conservative policy agenda.

About the Author

Arturo Domínguez is a first-generation Cuban-American, anti-racist journalist, and the publisher of The Antagonist. Twitter/X: @ExtremeArturo

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What We’re Reading

Venezuelan Opposition Leader Arrested Then Freed: On Thursday afternoon, The Associated Press reported that aides to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she was arrested in Caracas after an anti-government protest.

After that story broke, Machado’s party said that she was freed, according to Bloomberg.

On Friday, Nicolás Maduro is scheduled to be sworn in for his next term as Venezuela’s president. He has been the country’s leader since 2013.

Senate Advances Laken Riley Act: From NBC News, “The Senate voted Thursday to begin debate on the Laken Riley Act, clearing a key hurdle to advance a Republican-led bill aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration that has garnered significant support from Democrats.

With a vote of 84-9, the bill easily cleared the 60-vote threshold to advance in GOP-controlled Senate. But many Democrats have suggested they want to amend the bill, so it’s unclear whether it will receive enough support for final passage.”

The Latino Newsletter welcomes opinion pieces in English and/or Spanish from community voices. You can email our publisher, Julio Ricardo Varela. The views expressed by outside opinion contributors do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this outlet.