The Brown Scare

Undocumented farmworkers have a long history in America, with vital contribution not only to the drinks world, but the very fabric of American life. Today, the next chapter in their story is incredibly unclear.

WORDS Elaine Chukan Brown
IMAGES Nítido Estudio

Federal agents crossed the gate near 10 a.m. Farmworkers were immersed in tending the crops. Pulling leaves from tomato plants. Adding water for cucumbers. Gleaning ripe buds from the cannabis houses. It was the first time there’d been a federal raid on Glass House Farms.

Glass House Farms is the largest, legal cannabis growing operation in the state of California. They also farm other produce, all in greenhouses, thus the name. In California, marijuana is considered legal within certain parameters, though it remains a controlled substance nationally. 

Marijuana crops become the basis for several legal products. The flowers, affectionately known as buds, are dried and sold for smoking or vaping, and sometimes baking. Dispensaries sell edible goods such as THC- and CBD-gummies and chocolates. THC is considered the psychoactive part of the cannabis plant, CBD the therapeutic. 

Buds are now also the basis for numerous beverages. THC-infused cocktails, tea, seltzers and sodas appear in stores throughout California. The warehouse-style retail store, Total Wine, sells things like Foundry 10-milligram THC Orange Dream Float, or Keef 10-milligram THC Classic Orange Soda. Drinking THC hits faster than eating it, though not as fast as inhaling.

Sale of cannabis beverages are growing. Market studies show that in the first quarter of 2025, such drinks reached $54.6 million in sales in California, a 15-percent increase from the same period in 2024. 

But cannabis is not the only industry being targeted by immigration enforcement. In 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has escalated detentions from U.S. industries known to rely on immigrant labor: the construction industry, agriculture, food production and manufacturing, hospitality and grocery have all been targeted, each of which form aspects of the broader drinks industry. 

Agriculture and its farmworkers ensure grapes for wine; apples and pears for cider; citrus for sodas and energy drinks; various fruits for juices, flavored seltzers and infusions; dairy farming for milk and milk-based beverages; powdered drinks; liquid health supplements; cannabis beverages; brandy; vermouth; beer; mead. The list goes on and on. 

Bartenders, sommeliers and waiters also rely on these products for service in restaurants and bars. The National Restaurant Association reports that beverages make up 20–30 percent of total sales in restaurants, with 21 percent of revenue in full-service restaurants coming from alcohol. Grocery accounts for around 44 percent of all alcohol sales in the United States, and 86 percent for beverages more broadly. Market reports indicate that beverage sales account for 10–15 percent of all grocery sales.

Glass House also grows cannabis for hemp, which can be used to make paper, fabrics, biodegradable plant-based plastics, as well as hemp seed or oil used for cooking or health supplements.

Whatever form marijuana might become, weed remains a vital agricultural crop. Aspects of it can be mechanized for greater efficiency, but it depends on skilled labor to maintain, plant and harvest.

CALIFORNIA IMPACT

In California, agriculture depends largely on immigrant workers, most originating from Mexico. Some are legally within the United States via a federally run, temporary and seasonal agricultural work visa known as the H2A program. Others entered­ the United States for work, then became residents. But studies show that around half are undocumented workers—it’s incredibly important to note that “undocumented” does not equate to “illegal.” And through wage adjustments, they pay taxes but have no ability to utilize public services such as social security, retirement, Medicare or Medicaid.

Recent raids and detentions from immigration enforcement have already had notable impact on California’s agricultural economy. California is the largest producer of nuts, vegetables and fruits in the country, and the fifth-largest food supplier in the world, forming an integral part of the global food supply. In 2022, the state delivered more than $59.9 billion in value from agricultural products, 10.5 percent of the nation’s total.

To protect the role farm labor has in the state’s agriculture success, the California senate passed “the California Values Act,” otherwise known as Senate Bill (SB) 54, in 2017. The state prohibits California law enforcement agencies from cooperating with ICE and other federal agencies on civil immigration enforcement, and effectively made California a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants.

But regardless of SB 54, increased immigration enforcement in 2025 has created an unstable labor force. The disruption has increased overall farming costs, reduced harvest yields, created lost wages for farmworkers, decreased access to food and housing, and reduced tax revenues. California Governor Gavin Newsom has spoken out explicitly against the increase in ICE activity.

The idea of undocumented immigrant workers has become­ fodder for a national crisis akin to what we might call a “brown scare.” In the decade before World War II, similar propaganda­ generated a red scare, or fear of communists invading the country.

Since the 1990s, momentum for the brown scare has steadily built. It has accused undocumented workers of causing various financial crises: drops in the U.S. economy, increased unemployment, loss of livable wages. MAGA-politics created by President Trump, beginning prior to his first term, have relied­ on fueling the brown scare to create solidarity and loyalty to the President and his administration.

A little after 10 a.m., federal agents rushed the entrance to both locations of Glass House Farms. According to reports, they wore gas masks, tactical armor and carried military weapons. Agents launched gas and smoke grenades akin to tear gas. They yelled instructions in every direction and grabbed employees for detainment. The noise and shock of the surprise incursion created chaos almost immediately.

Regardless of citizenship or legal status, employees ran. Many hid. Others tried to escape over fencing. By the end of the day, DHS announced they had detained 361 people in the Glass House raids. Both employees and protestors outside the gates were arrested. It was later reported that detainments included people with legal residency status, citizens, a philosophy professor from a Cal State university and even an Army veteran.

Amid the mayhem, an employee died. Jaime Alanís Garcia climbed to the top of a greenhouse to hide. From there, he slipped, fell 30 feet and broke his neck. He succumbed to his injuries two days later. Garcia had worked for Glass House around 10 years, essentially since its founding.

Though ICE agents entered the farms with claims of federal warrant, such proposed investigations were never conducted. According to witnesses, agents instead immediately turned to grabbing employees. The described warrant was also never seen nor presented. Since the raids, requests to view the warrant have been denied.

ICE agents are trained to coerce entry if necessary. Training manuals from the federal organization describe ruse techniques to encourage targets to invite them in voluntarily. To put it simply, agents are trained in ways to lie effectively, to create stories that persuade people to admit agents into private property voluntarily. Once allowed entry, agents can legally make the arrest.

THE BROWN SCARE

The perceived legitimacy of the Trump administration’s determination­ to increase deportation efforts of the nation’s immigrant population has depended on the creation of a brown scare. But such xenophobia started in the country long before Trump, and arguably with its founding.

European colonists’ need for land claims depended on a sort of discovery doctrine that created the concept of the New World, that outside settlers discovered North America. The Doctrine of Discovery established by Christian nations of Europe deemed that any land devoid of Christians was terra nullius, or empty land, devoid of people. According to their beliefs, non-Christians were infidels, and for the good of God, empty land must be taken and led by Christian rule.

The Doctrine of Discovery influenced the writing of the United States founding documents and informed the country’s laws for interacting with North America’s first peoples. The Declaration of Independence describes them as “merciless savage Indians” whose “known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Such views helped lead the nation into intentional eradication of Indigenous people throughout the country and its territories.

By the 1850s, this view helped establish the country’s first internment camps, so-called Indian Reservations that forcibly confined Indigenous peoples to specified areas of land. In most cases, reservations also lacked any resources deemed valuable to the wealth of the country, including the ability to farm.

But eradicating “Indians” created labor shortages. They were the first people of color enslaved and exploited in the country. History suggests that enslaved people forcibly brought from Africa arrived more than a century later. For the first time, immigrants were needed not to claim land but to work it for land owners.

In California, Indigenous peoples founded the region’s wine industry, first taught by a few Spanish missionaries about viticulture, then enslaved to maintain the vines, create irrigation solutions, recognize harvest and yields, and finally produce the wines.

In the late 1800s, California launched a regular 10–20-year cycle of importing labor, expelling the newcomers, then realizing a labor shortage. The arrival of Chinese workers in the 1860s led to the first comprehensive anti-immigration law of the nation, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned the immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years.

When labor shortages reappeared, workers were brought from Japan, then Pakistan, India, the Philippines, Mexico. Each faced a mix of immigration restrictions, containment, repatriation and abuse tactics designed to encourage voluntary deportation once a need was met.

Even so, such anti-immigration activity continues.

The Glass House raids represent an intensification of detainment­ and deportation against immigrant workers since President Trump took office in January. Under the current administration, there has been a rise in overall immigration enforcement, including raids outside schools, churches and federal courthouses, previously deemed anecdotally off limits. There has also been an expansion of authority granted to ICE to make such arrests, a stop to processing asylum cases and the revocation of already approved asylum.

To encourage higher ICE-hiring rates, Trump has also annulled application age limits. Guidelines previously delineated an age range of 21–37 for investigator positions, and below­ 40 for deportation officers. At the end of July 2025, Trump dropped such restrictions—eighteen-year-olds can now be hired, and retired federal officers are also encouraged to apply. Altogether, increased federal resources has meant an increase in ICE activity.

According to federal reports, ICE has performed more than 100,000 arrests in the first half of 2025. In 2024, total ICE arrests for the year reached 113,400. Many believe actual numbers for 2025 are higher. In July 2025, Newsweek reported that inside government data shows ICE had already deported almost­ 150,000 people in 2025, including citizens, visa holders, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and asylum recipients, as well as both accompanied and unaccompanied minors, including those who are citizens.

While DHS insists their actions have been to target criminals for deportations, that is, focus on “the worst of the worst,” ICE’s own data contradicts this. According to ICE records, more than 70 percent of those detained have no criminal charges.

The Deportation Data Project released figures gathered from inside government records via the Freedom of Information Act that shows while deportation rates under Trump have increased­ compared to those of the Biden administration, the proportion of those with criminal records has gone down. Violent crime-related deportations have reduced from 10 to 7 percent. Drug crimes from 9 to 5 percent. The rest are minor charges or convictions. Most detained or deported have no such record.

Minor offenses include traffic violations, public intoxication, trespassing and DUIs, among others. They also include resisting arrest, an accusation that has been significantly increased­ by ICE this year. In August 2025, DHS reported that ICE enforcement has faced a 1,000-percent increase in violence or resistance against officers during arrests this year.

That report gave the administration grounds to broaden deportations and claim criminal activity. Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, announced in July 2025 that detainment and deportation activities now include anyone in the country without legal documentation, regardless of previous criminal record.

The escalation of ICE-authority has depended on President Trump invoking a unique Executive Order on the day he took office for his second term. Immediately following his inauguration, Trump signed an Executive Order, the Protecting the American People Against Invasion Act, also known as Executive Order (EO) 14159, which asserted that the Biden administration had overseen “an unprecedented flood of illegal immigration”­ into the country.

By using the word “invasion,” Trump was leveraging a centuries old federal law, the U.S. Alien Enemies Act. Doing so makes it easier for Trump to, among other things, call in the National Guard to support ICE activities.

The Alien Enemies Act grants any President authority to target groups or individuals deemed a “hostile entity” for the sake of national security during times of war. It was signed into law in 1798 by the second U.S. President, John Adams. Prior to Trump referring to it in January 2025, the Alien Enemies Act had only been used during three incidents: The War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

EO 14159 revoked numerous Biden-era enforcement policies. These include prioritizing those with the most serious criminal records; providing safe and orderly processing of asylum seekers; federal efforts for reunification of families following border separations in the first Trump administration. The act also directs ICE efforts towards areas of the country that have deemed themselves sanctuary cities or states.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has openly criticized sanctuary cities and states for obstructing deportation efforts, claiming­ they are harboring dangerous criminals. Arrests in these cities­ and states have escalated this year. DHS has reported that New York City has had a 400-percent increase in ICE detentions since the Biden administration. The state of California has seen a 122-percent increase in the first half of 2025. In June 2025, California detentions were up 500 percent compared to the same month last year.

ICE data shows a difference between how arrests are conducted in so-called red versus blue states. In Republican-led areas, where there is no sanctuary policy for immigrants, ICE arrests are mostly made from those already in prison or jail. Democrat-led states, conversely, and those areas with perceived­ sanctuary status, show ICE targets community members.

LEGAL IMPACT AND EFFORTS

Arguably, DHS efforts to reduce the amount of immigrant labor in the United States has been too effective. Employers throughout California in agriculture, hospitality, grocery and more report labor shortages.

Such loss is not small. The American Immigration Council reports that three out of 10 workers in food and beverage production are foreign-born. In California, they are at least 40 percent of that industry. Specifically in food and beverage service and hospitality, foreign-born workers make up 22 percent of industry workers; in California, that number reaches over 30 percent.

But anti-immigration tactics of the current administration have also revealed unique strategies. The means to counter­ brutal ICE raids is found in the actions of everyday citizens. Numerous reports of community residents keeping federal agents from reaching people targeted for detention so they can enter the private property of their own home have emerged from all over the country.

Volunteers have accompanied those fearing detention or deportation to medical treatment, court appearances and more. People near ICE arrests have compiled names of those detained, reported to families and raised media awareness. Others have launched fundraising campaigns to cover legal expenses. Still others have filed lawsuits against regional law enforcement or the federal government.

In early July 2025, five individuals allegedly illegally targeted­ by ICE instigated a lawsuit against DHS known as Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), public counsel and civil rights attorneys joined forces­ to represent the plaintiffs. The filing challenges DHS for breaking federal law through warrantless arrests; targeting individuals­ based on race as well as suspicious surveillance activities; detaining­ individuals in inhumane conditions; and for refusing access to legal counsel. Each of which are arguably violations­ of the Constitution.

The case was quickly joined by four organizations acting as plaintiffs in addition to the five individuals: the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, United Farm Workers, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and Immigrant Defenders Law Center. 

In late September, Judge Frimpong will consider granting a preliminary injunction in the case against federal agents. If granted, the plaintiffs can then also request it be made permanent. In the meantime, the Trump administration has requested­ the restrictions of the TRO be dropped until the case is decided. So far courts have refused. The administrations’ appeal has now been filed to the Supreme Court.

Earlier in the year, United Farm Workers v. Noem presented a similar case against CBP activities in the Eastern District of California, which spreads from the Tehachapi mountains south of Bakersfield to the Oregon border.

The lawsuit was instigated by five residents of Kern County, in the southern portion of the Central Valley, who allegedly were illegally targeted by border patrol. Soon after they were joined by the United Farm Workers as additional plaintiff. Together they were represented by the ACLU and civil rights lawyers. In late April 2025, a preliminary injunction was granted in the case. Mandatory reporting from the federal government for the ongoing case shows CBP has not made any warrantless arrests in the district since the April ruling. 

EVERYDAY PEOPLE

What the two cases, Vasquez v. Noem and United Farm Workers v. Noem, have in common is the power of everyday people to force change in government policy and practices. Between the two cases, 10 individuals inspired support from additional organizations­ and local governments. Together, they effectively­ paused what were deemed unconstitutional immigration enforcement activities in 41 of California’s 58 counties. That means, DHS detentions and deportations have been slowed in around 70 percent of the state.

The challenge of the TRO and injunctions granted in the Eastern and Central Districts of California rests in the ability for defendants to appeal any final injunction. Once a federal judge submits a ruling, the administration can appeal­ for the case to be overturned. Such an appeal rests in the defendant showing the court made an error in granting the injunction.

A further vulnerability in the effectiveness of a TRO is the ability for defendants to request a pause on TRO restrictions until a case is decided. Here, such a pause would allow immigration enforcement to again continue their detention tactics while the case is under review. But, if it is not granted, the restrictions on federal agents remain in effect even while the case is being appealed, which could take years.

It is difficult to determine exact numbers of people who have been left untargeted by ICE, CBP and DHS since the judges halted activities. Even so, data does show a decrease in enforcement activity and seems to indicate a decrease in both detentions and deportation proceedings. They also seem to indicate an increase in deportation cases being terminated.

At our most utilitarian, it also reduces losses to the federal and state economies. The Center for Immigration Studies reports that as of January 2025, there was a population of 53.3 million foreign-born or immigrant people in the United States (both legal and otherwise), or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population. In California, that number is 10.6 million, or 27 percent of the state population.

According to the Immigrant Research Initiative, immigrant residents contribute 17 percent of the country’s economic output, or GDP. That is a higher share of the nation’s economic production than the size of their population.

Beyond the economy, it is immigrant workers who are standing at the frontline of the government’s effort to restrict­ citizens and harm members of the populace. History has shown that government increase of restrictions against targeted populations, such as communists before World War II, or brown-skin laborers since the country’s founding, eventually expands to increased restrictions for other portions of the population as well. Some argue immigration enforcement actions are a preview to what the Trump administration is willing to do with the overall population.

Just as loss of immigrant labor negatively impacts the economy, the loss of foreign-born residents damages the health of our communities. Acting to pressure government change means protecting not only foreign-born residents, but the U.S. population at large, the country’s everyday people.