Farmworkers Launch Statewide Strike to Protest Immigration Raids

California farmworkers are rising up in protest this week, launching a statewide labor strike to oppose recent immigration raids and the Trump administration’s broader immigration policies. From July 16 to 18, workers are participating in “Huelga para la dignidad,” or Strike for Dignity, a grassroots-led movement calling for urgent action and solidarity.

Planned by undocumented farmworkers and local organizers, the strike urges the public to boycott grocery stores during the three-day protest in support of those who labor in the fields—often invisibly and without recognition. Participants are demanding an end to ICE raids and deportations, a direct pathway to citizenship, and permanent legal protections for undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S.

The strike was formally announced at a press conference on July 14 at La Placita Olvera in Los Angeles. Mexican-American organizer and digital creator Flor Martínez Zaragoza, a prominent advocate for immigrant and farmworker rights, led the event.

“This is our cry for justice. We’ve harvested this nation’s food through fire, floods, and a pandemic,” said one farmworker organizer. “Now we’re asking the people to stand with us in this strike—to boycott the companies that exploit us and silence our voices. We are done being invisible.”

Throughout the press conference, farmworkers and community members shared deeply personal stories of workplace injuries, wage theft, family separation, and the fear of being deported despite years of paying taxes and contributing to the economy. Many emphasized the emotional and physical toll of living in legal limbo.

The timing of the strike follows growing outrage after a recent immigration raid in Camarillo led to the death of farmworker Jaime Alanís Garcia, who fell from a greenhouse roof while fleeing ICE agents. Days before the strike was announced, a federal judge in Los Angeles issued a temporary order blocking ICE from conducting raids without reasonable suspicion. Garcia’s family has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical and funeral costs, writing that he “was not just a farmworker” but “a human being who deserved dignity.”

Organizers say Huelga para la dignidad is the first undocumented- and digitally led labor strike of its kind. Over the next several days, they are asking the public to spread awareness online and offline to support the strike’s goals and uplift the voices of workers who remain at the margins of the U.S. food system.

“Farmworkers feed the nation,” one community member said. “It’s time the nation showed up for them.”