World

‘Fields were solitary’: Migration raids send chill across rural California

Published

1 year ago

January 17, 2025

‘Fields were solitary’: Migration raids send chill across rural California

Los Angeles, California — Recent raids carried out by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a rural California county have struck fear into immigrant communities as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.

CBP says that the operation in Kern County, which took place over three days in early January, resulted in the detention of 78 people. The United Farm Workers (UFW) union says it believes the number is closer to 200.

“The fields were almost solitary the day after the raids,” a 38-year-old undocumented farmworker named Alejanda, who declined to give her last name, said of the aftermath.

She explained that many workers stayed home out of fear. “This time of year, the orchards are usually full of people, but it felt like I was by myself when I returned to work.”

The raids are being seen by local labourers and organisations like UFW as a shot across the bow from immigration enforcement agencies before Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

His second term as president is expected to ring in a new era of enhanced restrictions and deportation efforts.

While the number of people arrested represents a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers underpinning California’s agricultural sector, the anxieties caused by such raids extend far beyond those detained.

“On Wednesday [the day after the raids], I stayed home from work. I barely left my house,” said Alejanda, adding that she kept her five-year-old son home from daycare rather than risk driving to drop him off.

“Everyone is talking about what happened. Everyone is afraid, including me. I didn’t actually see any of the agents myself, but you still feel the tension.”

Emboldened agencies

Following a presidential campaign where he routinely depicted undocumented migrants as “criminals” and “animals”, Trump will likely try to fulfill his promise to carry out the “largest deportation programme” in the country’s history on his first day in office.

About 11 million people live in the United States without legal documentation, some of whom have worked in the country for decades, building families and communities.

The January arrests in Kern County appear to be the first large-scale Border Patrol raid in California since Trump’s victory in the November election, which set off speculation about the potential impact of mass deportations on immigrant communities and the economic sectors dependent on their labour.

About 50 percent of California’s agricultural workforce is made up of undocumented immigrants.

In California, undocumented status has been cited as a source of persistent anxiety for workers — as well as a means of leverage for employers, who often pay such labourers lower wages and grant them fewer protections in the fields.

But Alejanda says that workplace raids like the ones that took place in Kern County have not been common in the area.

“I have been here for five years and never experienced anything like this before,” she said, noting that workers were detained while leaving the fields to go home.

CBP said in a statement that the operation, named “Return to Sender”, had targeted undocumented people with criminal backgrounds and connections to criminal organisations.

#WeFeedYou pic.twitter.com/8e6GE9RRkK
— United Farm Workers (@UFWupdates) January 11, 2025

The raids were carried out by agents from the CBP El Centro Sector, located near the border between Mexico and southern California, more than five hours by car from the site of the raids.

“The El Centro Sector takes all border threats seriously,” Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino said in a press release. “Our area of responsibility stretches from the US/Mexico Border, north, as mission and threat dictate, all the way to the Oregon line.”

Antonio De Loera-Brust, a spokesperson for UFW, said that the operation shows that agencies like CBP are likely to become more aggressive as Trump takes office.

He also disputed CBP’s characterisation of the raids as focused on people with criminal records, saying that the operation cast a wide net and profiled people who looked like farmworkers.

Two of those arrested were UFW members, whom the organisation described as fathers who had lived in the area for more than 15 years.

“By operating over 300 miles north of the Mexican border, and apparently conducting this untargeted sweep based on profiling on their own initiative and authority, Border Patrol has shown itself to be clearly emboldened by a national political climate of hostility towards hard-working immigrant communities,” De Loera-Brust told Al Jazeera.

“It’s certainly deeply concerning that this sort of operation could be the new normal under the incoming Trump administration.”

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World

Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war

Published

7 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war

From being just a fringe risk, conflict in the Middle East has become a top worry for investors unsettled by the prospect of a power struggle in Iran and a protracted regional war, with ramifications for everything from global trade to inflation.

World

Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’

Published

8 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’

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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.

“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.

Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”

“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”

Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)

“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.

As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.

According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.

Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.

The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.

TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ

People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.

“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.

“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.

EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME

Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)

Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.

Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.

“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.

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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.

“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

World

Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM

Published

9 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM

Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.

As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.

EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.

Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.

“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”

On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.

“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.

“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”

Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”

“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.

When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”

On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.

Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.

“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.

Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET