LAMONT, CA (KGET/CNN) - Latinos in a Bakersfield community are “frightened and afraid.”
Yulie Gonzalez is used to having dozens of people in her restaurant, El Fogon, early every morning. Between 4 and 6 a.m., immigrant agriculture workers in central California’s Kern County would flood in for coffee and breakfast.
But Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the area have had a chilling effect on daily life, she said. Her shop has been empty because the undocumented field worker population is terrified of ICE.
“As of Monday we started receiving lots of calls from the community in regards to ICE detentions,” said Fatima Hernandez with the United Farm Workers Foundation.
The foundation said it has confirmed at least 23 individuals have been detained from the area.
“They’ve been stopped on their way to work, 5 o'clock in the morning, between 5 and 6, going to work,” Hernandez said. “They're being pulled over by ICE. It's not the police, it's not highway patrol."
She added some have already been deported.
A local immigration attorney said the number of detentions is even higher.
"I don't know where that number's coming from but I can tell you we've had many more than 24 calls from different families that say their individual has been detained," said Win Eaton.
Eaton said his phone has not stopped ringing. He detailed the story of a woman whose husband was detained.
“She's in her early 30s, she's been here for more than 18 years in the United States. She has four U.S. citizen-born children ranging from 9 months to 9 years old. There's no criminal history with her or her husband,” he said. “Her husband has just been detained, she was weeping almost uncontrollably. I can't even tell the story without it emotionally affecting me."
ICE would not comment specifically on the situation in Kern County, but in a press release, the department said it has no choice but to continue "at large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites."
ICE cites California passing a so-called “sanctuary state” bill, prohibiting local law enforcement from cooperating with agency.
"It's as if all fury has been unleashed on the immigrant community,” said Eaton.
ICE announced 232 arrests in an operation in the San Francisco Bay Area last week.
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