California Fruit Will ‘Die on the Vine’ After ICE Raids, Labor Warns
- Undocumented workers are arrested, detained in federal sweeps
- Oakland mayor’s warning condemned by administration, officials
Photographer: Sam Hodgson/Bloomberg
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Maria’s husband spent the past 15 years pruning citrus trees on farms across California’s Central Valley. In that time, he’d become skilled enough to earn more than the state’s $11-an-hour minimum wage trimming branches for Sun Pacific, the company that brings the Cuties brand of mandarin oranges to grocers and tables across the U.S.
After dropping off his kids at school Monday in Porterville, the father of five, who’d been arrested in 2014 for driving under the influence, was pulled over and detained by federal agents. The arrest was one of hundreds in a flurry of raids this week across the state as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants.