How the fear of soft-target raids is changing undocumented migrants’ behavior

By Stephanie Elam, Kat Jaeger and Norma Galeana, CNN

Los Angeles (CNN) — All Carlos could do was cry.

He watched as other day laborers in a Home Depot parking lot in Pomona, California, were detained by Customs and Border Protection agents April 22.

Later, Carlos – who withheld his last name – stood before microphones at a news conference covered by CNN affiliates KCBS/KCAL and KABC. His face was obscured by a baseball cap, a mask and sunglasses, which he temporarily moved to wipe away tears.

“We are here. We are human beings. We’re only here to support ourselves and to maintain our families,” Carlos said through an interpreter in the news conference, which was held by advocates of day laborers.

While Carlos wasn’t detained, day worker advocates say operations like the one in Pomona have long-lasting impacts on those who are apprehended, as well as their families and communities. Many day laborers are undocumented immigrants looking for work and a fair wage in appropriate and safe working conditions.

Organizers who work with day laborers in the Pomona area say the raid that day was an anomaly, but it still sent a shockwave of fear through the migrant community.

“A raid like what happened at Home Depot hasn’t happened in Pomona in the last decade,” explained Alexis Teodoro, the worker rights director for the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, a non-profit that helps day laborers find work and job training.

The action falls in line with President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration and the executive orders on immigration he signed on his first day in office. More than 66,000 undocumented immigrants were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first 100 days in office, the agency announced Tuesday; that’s nearly half the number arrested by ICE during the entire 2024 fiscal year.

Teodoro and other day laborer advocates say the fear of more of these operations is having a “chilling effect,” changing these workers’ behavior and keeping them from so-called “soft targets” where undocumented immigrants could easily be apprehended – places such as houses of worship, their children’s schools and locations where they normally find work.

‘I was afraid I was going to end up in detention in El Salvador or Guantanamo’

Undocumented individuals such as Martin Majin Leon are also getting picked up in targeted operations. In surveillance camera footage from the same day as the Pomona raid, the 59-year-old from Guerrero, Mexico, is seen arriving at the Pomona barbershop he’s owned for more than two decades, getting out of his car to open the gate, and being blocked in by two vehicles. Agents apprehended him in just a few minutes, parked his car off the road and drove away with him in a van.

“I was aware of my legal status and in the back of my mind, I knew this could happen after all the threats by the president and everything that’s going on. But the way it happened? It was very unexpected – arresting me at gunpoint. I still can’t understand that,” Majin Leon told CNN in Spanish, adding that the arresting agents didn’t treat him badly.

“We don’t know what to expect with this president,” he added. “I was afraid I was going to end up in detention in El Salvador or Guantanamo. Watching the news and seeing all his actions, I felt despair.”

More than a day later, Majin Leon, who has lived in the United States for 39 years, was given a hearing date and released. The father of seven and grandfather of 12 said the judge reviewed his record and decided he could be released with the least restrictions possible. He said he is required to check in with his probation officer monthly.

“I’m not doing well,” Majin Leon said. “I have diabetes, high blood pressure. What I went through made things worse for me. I’m not doing well mentally.”

Majin Leon said the experience has “altered” his life. Despite having a valid driver’s license, what he says is an “impeccable” driving record in the United States and being told by his probation officer he could resume his life as it was, he’s now having his son drive him around.

“I used to live an independent life, going places and taking my wife to her appointments. I don’t feel I can do that right now. I just can’t take any chances.”

Collateral arrests at the Home Depot raid

In the Pomona Home Depot raid, 10 undocumented immigrants were detained, a senior official from the Department of Homeland Security told CNN in an email. The operation was targeting one person with an active arrest warrant, the department and Customs and Border Protection said.

“Several of those apprehended had prior charges, including child abuse, assault with a deadly weapon, immigration violations and DUI,” the statement said.

In response to a CNN email request for comment about the Pomona raid, a Home Depot spokesperson said, “We weren’t notified in advance, and we weren’t involved in the operation.”

Teodoro estimated there were about 50 day laborers who were at the Home Depot in Pomona at the time of the raid but several managed to avoid being taken, adding day laborers rely on Home Depot parking lots and similar locations in many communities to find work.

“Construction companies, contractors, private homeowners – they have historically gone to the Home Depot to buy their materials and then they come outside and hire a day laborer,” Teodoro said in an interview with CNN. “This is common knowledge and is almost as American as apple pie now.”

People looking for help with all kinds of manual labor projects can approach workers waiting at places like these, negotiate a deal for the kind of service they need, then go off to do the job. The day laborers are often paid in cash at the end of the day; many return to these locations daily hoping to get enough work to allow them to provide for their families.

Teodoro said the fear of more raids hurts the regional economy as construction sites can’t hire the workers they need, and those day laborers have less income to spend in local businesses. In the days right after the raid, Teodoro said, he found only a fraction of the usual groups of day laborers at the places where they find work.

There have been publicized raids in other cities as well.

“We know that these types of operations intend to intimidate people who are looking for an honest day of work,” said Pablo Alvarado from the National Day Labor Organizing Network.

These roundups of undocumented workers are different from the ICE raids in the past, Alvarado said.

“They claim they are going to … specific people who have removal orders, but in that process, they arrest anybody they found that might be undocumented,” Alvarado told CNN, adding he’s seen agents operate in smaller groups to carry out these kinds of actions. “That’s what they call collateral arrests.”

In March, ICE raided a business in El Cajon, California, arresting three workers charged with using false documents to work in the United States as well as the general manager who was charged with conspiracy to harbor undocumented workers.

In January, Homeland Security Investigations apprehended another three people in a raid on a seafood restaurant in Newark, New Jersey, prompting the mayor to put out a statement saying the agents detained “undocumented residents, as well as citizens, without producing a warrant.”

US Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey took to social media, writing about the operation that “our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics.”

Charities see a drop in traffic as fear grows

In some locations, charities are also present to assist day laborers.

Catholic Charities of Los Angeles contracts with Home Depot to operate temporary skilled worker centers at nearly two dozen locations in the region. Some of its funding comes from city governments to create safe spaces for day laborers to find work.

Raids in the past several months have made it difficult for workers to safely connect with potential employers at their centers, said Regional Director Sandra Yanez. The fear of being detained adds up to many days of lost work, she said.

“We have had dates someone heard there was a raid, and on these days not one single person would show up,” Yanez said to CNN.

Advocacy groups are advising day laborers to know their rights if they are confronted by border patrol or ICE agents, telling them that “being day laborers is not a crime.”

“If you are detained, you can exercise your rights. You can refuse to answer questions, and you can ask to speak to an attorney,” said Jessica Bansal, a lawyer with the National Day Labor Organizing Network.

Still, while the Trump administration didn’t invent the kind of operation that happened in Pomona, it has raised the ante, Teodoro said.

“The Obama administration also targeted day laborers. This is nothing new. But the new thing now is that they don’t care about the law,” Teodoro said. “They could have done an operation anywhere. They could have gone to any neighborhood, full of gangs. They didn’t do that. They went to a place that’s a work site for immigrant workers who are trying to feed their families.”

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