It’s Harvest Season In Farmland Of Central California. The Bumper Crop: Hypocrisy

Navarrette Nation Substack — Issue #0096 (July 14, 2025)

Critical Thinking At A Critical Time

[Every Monday]

3446 words; 37 min read

Monologue —

I’m a country mouse.

I’m many things. I’m a father of three teenagers, husband and grandson of legal Mexican immigrants and son of a retired cop. I’m a multi-platform writer, journalist and storyteller. I’m a Mexican-American who likes the hyphen even though I’m loyal to the United States. I’m a centrist who dislikes both political parties. And I’m a Californian who — despite all the challenges facing the Golden State — can’t imagine living anywhere else.

But, above all, I’m most definitely a country mouse. As such, I know three things for sure.

First, I know that California wouldn’t have a $4.1 trillion annual GDP with the fourth-largest economy in the world if it weren’t for agriculture which generates $60 billion annually.

Second, I know that California’s agricultural industry would — without undocumented immigrant laborers doing hot, hard and horrendous jobs that Americans won’t do — shrivel up and blow away.

And, third, I know that California farmers need to stop pretending they’re solely responsible for their success and be better allies to the undocumented immigrant farm workers who helped make them rich.

Especially in the workers’ hour of need. Look at the clock — or at street videos on TikTok. This is that hour.

According to media reports, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have — in just the last five weeks — arrested and deported more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles and the surrounding area.

The media reporting is wrong — in at least four different respects.

One, it’s obvious that the masked men prowling the streets of Los Angeles in search of brown-skinned people aren’t all ICE agents. It’s likely they aren’t even cops. Many are probably bounty hunters and independent contractors hired by the Department of Homeland Security. Some may be white supremacists, Proud Boys or pardoned Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

Two, the encounters aren’t really arrests. No one seems to be receiving their Miranda warnings (which protect them against self-incrimination) when they’re being shoved into unmarked vehicles. Some of the apprehended aren’t even handcuffed, and the word “arrest” is never mentioned. These people are being abducted or, you might say, kidnapped.

Three, it’s not clear that these people are being “deported.” To be deported, you go before an immigration judge who orders your removal. Nice and legal. There is a bureaucratic shortcut called “voluntary return” or “administrative voluntary departure” where individuals voluntarily return to their home country without formal proceedings. This isn’t that.

And four, who says all the people being apprehended — and, in some cases, disappeared — are indeed “undocumented immigrants?” There are reports of people being apprehended by ICE agents (or those impersonating them) even though they have green cards, or U.S. citizenship. As law enforcement gets more aggressive, anything goes.

In other words, what has played out in Los Angeles over the last several weeks is…what’s that formal legal term? Oh yeah…a shit-show.

And now the immigration raids have spread north and found their way to the fertile farm country of Central California.