Every day, there are more and more raids where ICE is catching people at their jobs, schools, or even in people’s homes to deport them. However, people are doing everything they can to stop these agents from taking them away. For example, these immigrant laborers in California spent more than 15 hours hiding in the tomato plants so that ICE could not find them and deport them. Yet, many people are not only upset with the ICE agents’ actions but also with the individuals responsible for sharing this video.
The user a.ndrea.torres shared on TikTok a video that, at first, looks like they are recording the inside of a warehouse for tomato cultivation. However, if we pay attention to the following seconds, dozens of people appear in the images within the structure of the greenhouse or in small, difficult-to-access spaces. All this becomes clearer because the video has the caption in Spanish, “Jornaleros de Oxnard duraron más de 15 horas escondidos de ICE” (Oxnard, California laborers spent more than 15 hours hiding from ICE). So we can see that these people climbed to the most hidden corners of the place to avoid deportation.
In the video, you can also see that many people spent hours in small, confined spaces or even hidden among pipes. All were tightly packed with others in the same situation. Some are carrying their few belongings, and others are using their cell phones, probably alerting their families to the challenging situation they are in. Many of the commentators disapproved of the measures by the U.S. government regarding immigrants. Several were distraught because videos like these are showing others the hiding places and areas where ICE can search for immigrants. In a way, these videos are putting laborers on a silver platter to ICE.
For example, users like Patty Lemus expressed their disagreement with showing the hiding places, saying “Don’t give away their hiding places ☹️”. Which is entirely understandable, more after seeing other comments like Cruel’s, who said “so what you are saying, they should go back because they didn’t do a thorough search. understood. 👍“
Many other users shared that they are anxiously waiting for President Trump’s term to end soon, hoping that the deportations will stop. Unfortunately, this video is the only available information on these workers. It is unclear whether they escaped or if ICE found them.
