Border Patrol Activity In Rural North County Alarms Farmworkers, Advocates

Speaker 1: 00:00 The government says farm workers are essential. Amid the COBIT 19 pandemic and the agriculture department estimates that half of all crop hands in the U S are undocumented immigrants. Growers say it's closer to 75% in light of that U S immigration and customs enforcement announced in March. It's top priority is life saving and public safety activities. It's easing up on routine arrests and deportations now, but that's not what immigration advocates are seeing with the border patrol in North San Diego County. Joining me is reporter Maya Sri Krishnan who covers border and immigration issues at voice of San Diego. Maya, welcome. Speaker 2: 00:38 Thanks for having me Mark. Speaker 1: 00:39 Well, drivers to LA on interstate five are familiar with the immigration checkpoint near the orange County line, but that and others have often been dormant in recent years. How common are these checkpoints now in other parts of San Diego County and how's that changed since the pandemic? Speaker 2: 00:54 So it's sort of hard to get data on these checkpoints and how frequent they are. Um, but one of the things that residents and advocates and attorneys who, um, are working in living in Eastern North County area, which is Fallbrook to lose Paula, um, in those areas, they have noticed that several checkpoints that have been dormant or infrequent for several years have suddenly become more active. One of those is a checkpoint on the [inaudible] between Fallbrook and Temecula. Uh, there's also one on sr 76 has been reported active more often since March. So a lot of them have been raising concerns that perhaps at least in those specific areas where patrol is increasing its enforcement. Speaker 1: 01:41 Now, ice, as I noted, says it's relaxed, it's enforcement policy and the health crisis. Has the border patrol gone the other way? Speaker 2: 01:48 So like I said, it's really hard to get concrete data on, you know, how many stops are made and on these checkpoints, border patrol told me that they have made no changes, so not increasing or decreasing their operations for these particular checkpoints. They haven't been as forthcoming and saying whether they are increasing or decreasing. But they did talk about some of the things that they take into account when they open checkpoints and when they use them and why. And one of those things is traffic. And one thing we do know that since the pandemic traffic has decreased a lot, and the thing with these checkpoints is that everyone has to go through them. You know, they're not just stopping certain people, but if you're going up on the [inaudible], everyone is going to be slowed down. And when rush hour is at its peak during normal traffic, that can be really frustrating to people who are trying to get to work, who are citizens or you know, maybe don't have to worry about being stopped or anything like that. And so, you know, that might be something that they're taking into account right now, um, in reopening some of these checks. Speaker 1: 02:58 Now in your story, you'll highlight the case of Speaker 2: 03:00 Gilmer Barrios. Uh, what happened to him? Goodman Barrios was stopped at a checkpoint in March, the same 15 North checkpoint that the I was talking about earlier. Uh, he was working in San Diego County, but he lives in Temecula. Um, and he was, he stopped through his immigration checkpoint and was stopped. Bart is, has an open immigration case, so he does not have a legal status to be here, but he also has an open case in court. So it was a little bit strange, uh, that he was deported. And that was that attorneys, uh, an advocacy raise, an issue with, um, but he was really quickly deported to Tijuana. Um, fortunately on top of everything else, uh, Barrios is a Guatemalan citizen and so if you was going to be deported, he should not have been deported to Tijuana. Um, so after a little over 20 days there, he was eventually brought back to the U S with the help of the Guatemalan console general in Los Angeles. Um, and now he is currently awaiting, you know, his, his proceedings in court. Speaker 1: 04:04 Now you'll note the numbers regarding arrests are tough to come by. Uh, what are you seeing? What are the, uh, advocates immigration advocates saying as they're tracking arrests? Speaker 2: 04:14 So I did speak with one attorney whose organization has been trying to track some data on arrests up in Riverside. Um, they have noticed a slight increase in arrests in comparison to before the pandemic, but you know, it's very slight. It's from, you know, maybe one arrest in a quarter to now to arrest in a couple of months. Uh, but they say that that data is often underreported in general because people either don't know, they can report it, um, or a fearful or just get depleted so quickly that it's hard to, on top of that they have noticed an increase in reports of these checkpoints and they were, you know, the attorney I spoke with was particularly suspicious because of this [inaudible] checkpoint and the fact that it was more active than it has been in years. And that really indicated to her that enforcement was stepping up. Speaker 2: 05:11 I also spoke with [inaudible], which is an advocacy group in North County in San Diego and they, um, for many, many years have sort of been tracking checkpoints and enforcement. And what will happen is a member of the community, uh, will sort of text them or text them a picture or just text them that they saw checkpoint in a certain area and they will send one of their volunteers out to verify that and then they will send out, you know, checkpoints, Facebook message, um, other social media to let people know that there is a checkpoint in this place. Uh, they said that they have also noticed an increase in these reports. And again, you know, many of the people who are a part of that organization and volunteers have looked in this area for a very long time and have noted that many of these checkpoints were active when they were maybe kids, but haven't been active in maybe a decade or anything like that. Speaker 1: 06:01 They're back again. Now. What kind of impact are these checkpoints having on the immigrant community during this pandemic? Speaker 2: 06:08 So when I spoke with immigrants who are living in those communities, uh, one of the biggest things is that it has created a lot of fear and it has made them fearful to leave their homes at all. So that has meant that some people, it's not going to work some days when they hear about checkpoints. Um, and as you mentioned, many of these people are farm workers and so they are going to do an essential job and this is stopping them from doing that. Um, some of them indicated that they are hesitant to go to food pickups that are provided by schools or that they are hesitant those days to go to places where they can get internet to their children or grandchildren who are you as citizens who are in schools can actually participate in distance learning. So, um, and advocates have also sort of expressed that it would kind of be an hindrance for people to go access healthcare if they needed that, which is particularly concerning during a pandemic. Speaker 1: 07:00 Yeah. The checkpoint may be between, uh, the hospital and a lot of these folks as you noted in your story. Speaker 2: 07:07 Yeah. The Temecula hospital is actually the closest hospital for people who are living in the Fallbrook area. Um, it's close through then Palomar, Tri-City in Oceanside, I as significant amount by about 20 minutes. So a lot of them indicated that that was kind of concerning because they would have to go through this checkpoint to get to the hospital. And if that was concerning, not only for people who maybe don't have legal status, but for everyone in general, because again, it just sort of flows everyone down. Speaker 1: 07:34 Now finally, these stops can sometimes be contested in court, but as you point out, new emergency powers during the pen DEMEC makes that less likely. Is that right? Speaker 2: 07:44 Yeah. Um, and you were C power during the pandemic is a possibility. And then there was also a change in policy last year, last summer that also allowed border patrol to kind of more expeditiously deport people's, that's changed things also, you know, in general, people in immigration court are not guaranteed attorneys and so many of them may not know that they can, you know, sort of legally contest the reason why they were arrested in immigration court either. Speaker 1: 08:13 I've been speaking with voice of San Diego reporter Maya, Sri Krishna. Thanks Maya. Speaker 2: 08:18 Thanks for having me.