Every year in December, social workers from throughout Yuma County gather in the cold darkness of the early morning in San Luis for the Dia Del Campesino health fair for farmworkers.
The event is a one-stop shop put on by Campesinos Sin Fronteras and several other local and state agencies. Farmworkers can get a warm meal, blankets, health screenings and some leave with a new bicycle.
This year in ag is different. There have been reports of some farmworkers in agricultural communities afraid to go to work because of increased immigration enforcement. Yuma County ag leaders say the majority of workers here are legal workers with H-2A visas.
Some farmworkers KAWC spoke with early Friday morning said they are not directly afraid of immigration raids in Yuma County fields. But some said they are mindful and they have noticed fewer workers.
Analilia Peñuñure is 50 years old. She said she’s been working in ag for more than half her life.
“We are without some people in the fields," she said. "We work on Sundays because there are fewer workers. So we can be working seven days a week.”
Emma Torres is the director of Campesinos Sin Fronteras. She has long said farmworkers in Yuma County are mostly in the H-2A visa program that allows them to work in ag.
Torres said she is concerned with ICE raids in other ag communities including Ventura County and Salinas in California. But she’s not hearing any concerns locally.
“People here are thankful for the services we offer," Torres said. "When we opened at 1:30 a.m., people said ‘Thank you’. We want them to feel appreciated."
Ramon Mateo was the first farmworker in line before the event opened.
“You hear things especially with this president but we’ll see what happens," he said. "Here at this event they offer great services for us in addition to the goodies they have. They treat us well.”
Torres said the event sees anywhere from 3,500 to 5,000 farmworkers at Dia Del Campesino every year. About 200 volunteers from about 30 agencies participated this year. It takes about six to seven months to plan for the next year.
Leonardo Flores, an immigration counselor with Chicanos Por La Causa in Somerton offered information on immigration services including citizenship and naturalization and work permit renewals. He said there is a lot of misinformation online.
"Most of the time what they hear on social media is not what's actually happening," Flores said.
Onvida Health was offering A1C blood tests that show a person's average blood sugar (glucose) level to diagnose and monitor for diabetes.
"It's a good opportunity to meet with the farmworker community because this offers a screening," said Vanessa Orozco, a diabetes care and education specialist with Onvida. "We do recommend people go to their primary care provider to have a more formal test."
(Onvida is an underwriter for KAWC.)
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Senior student reporter Elias Alvarez contributed to this report.
