ICE arrests in Yuma’s fields: Families turn to GoFundMe as detentions continue

Fundraisers offer rare public glimpse into immigration enforcement in Yuma’s agricultural sector

YUMA COUNTY, AZ (AZFamily) — When a farmworker is detained somewhere in Yuma County’s sprawling agricultural fields, almost no one talks. Not the farm owners. Not the co-workers. Not the families.

So the first traces of what’s happening in the fields often surface somewhere else: GoFundMe.

Fundraisers document detentions

In February, a fundraiser titled “Help keep our father home with us” appeared online. It described a Yuma man detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while working for a local farming company.

According to the GoFundMe created by his daughter, he had been driving produce when he was stopped and arrested. The family wrote that he had lived in the U.S. for decades and was the primary provider for his children and grandchildren, now scrambling to pay legal fees and basic bills.

Another campaign, “Ayúdame a traer a Jaime a casa,” tells a similar story in Spanish. The organizer writes that Jaime, a longtime resident and family breadwinner, was detained recently and is now in immigration custody. The family is trying to raise money to cover legal representation, travel, and the cost of keeping things afloat while he is gone.

These fundraisers don’t use words like “raid” or “crackdown.” They’re framed as pleas for help from families in crisis. But together, they offer a rare public glimpse into something that, according to advocates and consular officials, is happening quietly and repeatedly in and around Yuma’s agricultural economy.

‘We will never find out’

Dulce María Valle Álvarez, the Mexican consul in Yuma, said her office depends on what detainees themselves say in order to intervene.

“If they are arrested, they have the right to remain silent, be respectful, don’t lie and say you want the Mexican consulate to be notified,” she said.

That specific request: “I want the Mexican consulate to be notified,” is critical.

“If they don’t ask to notify us, ICE does not notify us,” she said. “And when we go to the detention centers every week we visit them and that is when we find out who is there and we interview them. But if that is not the case, that they want to see the consul, we will never find out.”

Valle Álvarez said the consulate’s advice is the same for anyone detained by immigration authorities: stay calm, don’t run, and don’t fight.

“First thing, be calm, don’t run, because if you do it can be dangerous. Two, be respectful, don’t use violence against the authorities. They are there to do a job, so be calm. Don’t lie, it’s not going to help you, and remain silent. And please ask for a lawyer. You have the right to have one,” Álvarez said.

A workforce on the move

Agriculture in the Yuma area relies heavily on migrant farmworkers, many of them from Mexico, who travel from region to region following the harvest. They pick and pack the vegetables that form the backbone of Yuma’s winter economy.

That mobility, and many workers’ lack of legal status or mixed-status families, makes them particularly vulnerable to immigration enforcement, advocates say. It also makes it harder to track when and where arrests are happening.

In February, the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association hosted an agriculture summit and posted guidance on its website for employers in case immigration agents show up at a farm or packing shed.

The guidance urges farmers to have a plan in place, train employees about their rights, update I-9 employment records, and ensure ICE only has access to areas authorized by a judicial warrant.

In a statement, Yuma Fresh said, “we are particularly focused on the impact to our farms.”

No large-scale raids — but a steady drip of arrests

So far, there have been no reports of large-scale immigration raids on farms in the Yuma area, the kind of sweeping operations that draw headlines and protests elsewhere in the country.

Instead, the arrests that surface through fundraiser pages and quiet community conversations tend to involve one worker here, another person there: a driver pulled over while transporting produce, a resident stopped on the way to a job, a long-time community member seized after an encounter with authorities.

Without public acknowledgment from employers or detailed data from immigration agencies, it’s difficult to know how widespread these arrests are. But for families suddenly left without a breadwinner, the impact is immediate and severe.

For now, some of the clearest windows into what’s happening in and around Yuma’s fields are not official press releases or court filings — they are online fundraisers, written by children and spouses trying to keep food on the table and, if they can, bring their loved ones home.

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