“An Attack on Labor”: Washington Farmworker Organizer “Lelo” Detained in Trump Immigration Crackdown

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We look now at how the crackdown on asylum seekers and immigrants under the Trump administration is targeting labor activists, including the beloved immigrant farmworker organizer Alfredo Juarez, also known as “Lelo.” Supporters say he was kidnapped when agents with ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stopped him on a rural road as he drove his girlfriend to her job on a tulip bulb farm early in the morning of March 25th. When he asked for a warrant, the agents reportedly broke his car window and handcuffed him. Lelo is now jailed at the privately run Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where hundreds have rallied to call for his release. He picked strawberries for a living.

Democracy Now! spoke to Lelo in 2016, when he was a 16-year-old farmworker in Burlington, Washington.

ALFREDO JUAREZ ZEFERINO: One of the challenges that comes during the summer was that sometimes I have to, like, leave school early. I don’t get to finish school. I remember that one day — I think it was a Sunday — where we were picking strawberries, it was raining, and it was like super cold, like the wind and stuff like that. And I was kind of feeling a little sick. It was like around 12:00. And I wanted to go home, so I asked my mom. And then she said, if I’m, like, not feeling well, we should go home. And then my mom told the supervisor. But the supervisor said, like, “If you guys don’t get back to work, your whole — you guys all will get fired, and then you guys will find someplace to live.” Like just like right away, like at the same day, you get fired, and then you have to find a place to stay.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez on Democracy Now! in 2016, when he was 16 years old. In 2013, he helped found Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farmworkers union in Washington state, with his friend Edgar Franks, who’s joining us in a minute. Edgar recorded this more recent vidoe of Lelo in a strawberry field.

ALFREDO JUAREZ ZEFERINO: Strawberries, this is how they want it. Yeah, so, usually, you have a bucket. You throw it in. Then you grab another one, another leaf plant. Like right here, you grab this one, finish it, grab another one. And that’s how you go.

EDGAR FRANKS: Nice.

AMY GOODMAN: Today, Lelo has a hearing in his case. For more, we’re joined by Edgar Franks, the political director of Families United for Justice, Familias Unidas por la Justicia.

Welcome to Democracy Now! You’ve known Lelo for at least a decade, since he was what? Fourteen years old. Edgar, tell us what happened last week.

EDGAR FRANKS: Yeah, good morning, and thank you for having us here.

Yeah, I’ve grown — I’ve seen Lelo grow up. And it was really shocking to hear the details about what happened to him. It was around 7:30 in the morning, and he was doing what he usually does during this time of year, driving his partner to go work. Right now the work that’s available is working in tulip fields. So, he was driving, and no less than a couple miles from his home, he was pulled over, you know, an unmarked car, and he saw a gentleman approaching his vehicle. He cracked the window of his car a couple of inches. And when the people showed up to near his window, he asked, “Why am I getting pulled over? And do you have a warrant?” The people asked for his ID. And as soon as he was going to reach for his wallet to pull out his license, they broke his driver’s side — passenger side window. And, you know, he got out of the car. His partner was upset, so he didn’t want to, you know, get more fear into her, so he stepped out.

And within a couple of — not even a minute of interaction, of getting pulled over, he was already in handcuffs. So, he was taken to Ferndale at a holding station with Border Patrol, Ferndale, Washington. And a couple of hours later, he was transferred to Tacoma in the Northwest Detention Center. So, he’s been there ever since. So, we’re — hopefully, you know, can do something to get him out.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the significance of this hearing today. What’s being demanded?

EDGAR FRANKS: Yes, so, ICE had a statement that they said that Alfredo had a deportation order since March 2018, which Lelo had never got a letter or a call. He never had mentioned it to us ever. You know, he’s a pretty honest person, so if there was something like that, he would definitely have shown up to his court date.

But today, his lawyers, his immigration lawyers, are going to go and present a motion to see if they can reopen his case and fight the deportation removal. I believe a couple of days ago, he was already in line to get on an airplane to be deported back to Mexico. And when he was in line, he was actually pulled out by agents and said that his lawyers already had filed or had seeked a hearing with a judge. And today is that day of this. We don’t know what time today, this Friday, but, you know, it’s a very emotional, very tense day, because whatever the judge says, you know, it has a lot to do with his case. And he’s committed to fight this case, and hopefully he gets freed.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you also talk about — he’s not only Mexican, he’s Indigenous, he’s Mixteco — the issue of having language and resource accessibility so that Indigenous workers can organize? And do you believe this is one of the reasons he’s being targeted right now?

EDGAR FRANKS: We believe so. We believe that the reason of his detainment was because of how politically active he was in bettering the lives of not only farmworkers, immigrants, but especially the Mixteco community that he comes from. He’s one of the few organizers in the state that speaks Mixteco, English and Spanish. So, you know, he can communicate with thousands of workers here.

And, you know, the proof is just in how successful the union has been. You know, we passed overtime, got paid rest breaks, passed rules for heat and smoke rules. Alfredo had a lot to do, because he’s not only still working in farms when he’s not organizing, he has direct contact and is always talking to workers about what are the needs in our community. So, you know, for whatever gains we’ve made in the last couple of years, Alfredo has been a crucial part, and especially because of how, you know, since he’s been a young man, has been connected to the Mixteco community, which is a huge part of our farmworker community.

AMY GOODMAN: And it’s not the first time he’s been arrested and detained. When he was 15 years old, Bellingham police racially profiled him, pulled him over, detained him, even though he had DACA.

EDGAR FRANKS: Yeah, he was pulled over, you know, like any other teen, for driving without a license. A local police officer from the city of Bellingham questioned him and was asking for, like, Social Security and where he really was from. And within minutes of him being pulled over on a traffic stop, he was sent to — again, to Tacoma, when he was still a minor, when he was 15 years old. Luckily, some organizers were able to locate him and let the detention center know that they had a minor on their hands, and he was released. But, yeah, it was an incident of racial profiling.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to also ask you about the ICE agents raiding the Mt. Baker Roofing Company in Bellingham, Washington state, early Wednesday, arresting at least 37 immigrant workers. This is a Facebook Live video that captured the raid, recorded by Geovana Perez Juárez, whose nephew, Jose Manuel, was one of the detained workers.

GEOVANA PEREZ JUÁREZ: [translated] The raid happened when they were about to start their shift. They’re in unmarked cars. They’re in vehicles that don’t have an ICE logo or anything. … They are being processed in the warehouse over there. And from the warehouse, they are being escorted to the bus. … They are loading more people up in the bus. It is so sad to witness this. Being here is sad, watching how they take away hard-working people.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you comment on this raid, as we wrap up?

EDGAR FRANKS: Yeah, you know, it’s very, again, unfortunate. And it — 

AMY GOODMAN: Where were they taken?

EDGAR FRANKS: What was that?

AMY GOODMAN: They were taken to the same detention facility where Lelo is right now?

EDGAR FRANKS: To the detention center, yes. Yeah, these — you know, I think right now what we’re seeing is an attack on not only immigrants, but we think this is an attack also on workers. You know, I think Donald Trump has used this whole narrative of workers versus immigrants, but I think, in the long run, it’s an attack on labor and unions especially.

But, you know, we tried a couple years ago, actually helped a group of workers organize in Mt. Baker Roofing, I believe in 2022. And Alfredo was part of that. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the success that we wanted. But, you know, the Mt. Baker Roofing, almost a lot of industries in Washington state rely heavily on immigrant labor, you know, farm work included. And we’re seeing that this intensification of ICE and presence in our community is done, you know, to send a chill toward everybody that’s organizing for justice.

AMY GOODMAN: Edgar, we’re going to continue —

EDGAR FRANKS: It’s no coincidence that in Whatcom —

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to continue this interview in Spanish after the broadcast and post it on our Spanish website at democracynow.org. Edgar Franks, political director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, independent farmworkers union in Washington state that was co-founded by his longtime colleague, immigrant farmworker and organizer “Lelo,” Alfredo Juarez, who ICE agents detained last week. He’s currently jailed at the privately run Northwest Detention Center, a hearing in his case today. That hearing is in Tacoma, Edgar?

EDGAR FRANKS: Yes, it’s in Tacoma.

AMY GOODMAN: And we’ll tell people what happens over the weekend.

Coming up next, Can’t Look Away, a new documentary on the deadly consequences of social media addiction on young people, from sleep deprivation to suicide. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Wildegeeses” by the legendary folk singer Michael Hurley, who died this week at the age of 83. Visit democracynow.org to see more of his performance and interview when he stopped by our studio in 2020.