The recent widespread ICE raids in Los Angeles and the arrest of vineyard workers in Newberg have sent shockwaves through Oregon’s immigrant farmworker communities.

Moises Sotelo, a known figure in the local wine industry and owner of a small vineyard labor company, was taken into custody by federal immigration officers as he left for work on June 12. One of his employees was also detained the same morning.

In nearby Woodburn, another Willamette Valley agricultural city powered by immigrant and refugee labor, fear quickly followed.

“Specifically for our farmworkers, there is a lot of fear in the community, especially when we see things in the news, like what happened in LA and even Newberg most recently,” said Reyna Lopez, executive director of PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union and Hispanic advocacy group based in Woodburn.

PCUN, short for Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, has been working overtime since the November election to meet the needs of Oregon’s immigrant and refugee farmworkers experiencing anxiety over their status and safety.

And, while concerns over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have been high since election season, PCUN has seen another uptick in calls since the ICE raids in Los Angeles and Sotelo’s arrest in Newberg.

“We saw an increase in concerns that week, and many of them were people who were just really afraid,” Lopez said. “They saw a dark SUV in their neighborhood and they reported it, and a lot of those were actually not ICE, but it is really elevating the people’s fears and alertness in general.”

According to Lopez, that fear manifests in the livelihoods and daily routines of many local farmworkers.

“People are afraid to go to work, and they’re afraid to leave work,” Lopez said. “There’s a particular vulnerability that a lot of farmworkers feel when they’re in rural communities. They’re often outside in these remote areas of work, where they feel very exposed, particularly when they’re out at the vineyard or farm.”

The Oregon for All Coalition

Following last fall’s election, PCUN joined forces with more than 100 organizations and individuals statewide to launch the Oregon for All coalition — a network built to support immigrant and refugee Oregonians during times of anti-immigrant rhetoric and heightened immigration enforcement.

“ It’s a coalition of over 100 organizations and individuals that believe that immigrant and refugee Oregonians are our family, our friends, our neighbors; they’re our classmates, our colleagues and they’re part of what makes Oregon strong and beautiful,” Lopez said.

As a founding member, Lopez and PCUN have helped lead the group’s development of tools and services, including legal support, multilingual education campaigns and a statewide emergency hotline. The 24-hour number, 1-888-622-1510, connects callers to “know your rights” resources, verifies and warns of potential ICE activity and helps quickly deploy volunteers and legal aid in the event of an arrest.

However, Lopez said the most important part about the hotline is calling it in time.

“It’s not always the case that we’re getting to everyone on time,” Lopez said. “If people don’t have access to this phone number or people are calling us days later after their loved one has already been detained, it’s harder for us to help.”

One of the coalition’s biggest successes that Lopez shared was the story of Diego, a local asylum seeker from Aragua, Venezuela, who had concerns raised over his status because of gangs affiliated with his home state, which he repeatedly told immigration officers he had no ties to.

After ICE contacted him to report earlier this spring, Diego called PCUN’s hotline. The group connected him to legal aid through its coalition partners. His attorneys filed an emergency habeas corpus petition, stopping his deportation.

“That legal counsel was really important in making sure that he had that support,” Lopez said. “It really meant that we were able to stop that deportation.”

Mixed messages

Lopez also says the conflicting federal messages have made it difficult for people to know what to expect, spurring more anxiety.

“There’s also just a lot of confusion, and people are feeling very disoriented with what they’re hearing from day to day,” Lopez said. “One day they’re hearing that Trump is saying he won’t target agriculture, and then the next day he is. One day, he says they’re only targeting criminals, and then the next day, we see that someone with no criminal record is being taken. And that’s bringing up a lot of questions for the community.”

Just last week, President Trump ordered a pause to ICE raids on farms, but a day later his administration reversed it.

Community rallies around farmworkers

While it has been trying times for Lopez and her team, she says many people in the community are coming together to support PCUN’s cause.

“It’s been a scary time for a lot of farmworkers, but I’m also getting calls from employers who are asking, ‘How do we support our employees? How can we protect our place of work from a potential ICE raid?’” Lopez said. “I think that despite all the fear, there’s also a deep sense among people that they want to come together and do everything they can to protect their community and their neighbors.”

Recently, a local PCUN volunteer drove six hours round-trip to help accompany a mother from Newport to a required ICE check-in in Portland, a trip she would not have been able to make alone.

Lopez says she hopes more Oregonians will see this as an opportunity for unity and that people will continue to use and share her organization’s resources.

“The targeting of farm workers in our agricultural communities has been really, really hard to watch,” Lopez said. “We know that immigrant Oregonians are critical to the state’s success and our shared prosperity. Folks who have been caught up in these ICE actions are essential workers, and they deserve to live in our communities.”