They’re often called the “mow and blow” guys — the legion of predominately Latino gardeners driving pickup vehicles and trailers bristling with garden mowers, weed whackers and different yard-care gear as they have a tendency the yards of Southern California’s suburban neighborhoods.
However Daniel, a gardener who has lived undocumented within the U.S. for 20 years, doesn’t consider himself that method. He does much more for his shoppers — trimming vegetation, fertilizing and weeding too. In actual fact, a few of his shoppers have solely tiny lawns, or no lawns in any respect lately, however they nonetheless want his companies.
And he nonetheless must work, regardless of immigration raids happening in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties; the latter is the place he has run his yard-care enterprise for 11 years.
Reflecting on his precarious place, he quieted his leaf blower and took off his sun shades, giving solely his first title for security’s sake.
“These occasions are actually arduous and everyone is afraid,” he mentioned, referring to Latinos broadly — no matter immigration standing. “It’s actually not regular, and we’re all the time being cautious, however you recognize, we have to work. We have to pay our payments as a result of the payments are all the time coming they usually don’t cease.”
On this June morning, his 15-year-old daughter joined him on his rounds by means of a Ventura neighborhood. She and her sisters — 10 and 18 — have been born in america, however her mother and father have been born in Mexico. The daughter was pleasant with a welcoming smile, however when the dialogue turned as to whether she and her household have mentioned what’s going to occur if her mother and father are detained by immigration, she grew to become as severe as her father.
Criticisms about immigrants, fear about her mother and father’ standing — “that’s all the time been a part of our expertise, however now it’s a lot worse,” she mentioned quietly. “It seems like a scarcity of empathy.”
An estimated 1.2 million individuals work in landscaping and groundskeeping in america, in response to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and in California, 88% of these employees are Latino and 68% are immigrants, in response to a 2024 report by the Public Coverage Institute of California, a nonpartisan, nonprofit suppose tank. What number of of these immigrants are undocumented is unclear.
President Trump promised throughout his marketing campaign that he would crack down on unlawful immigration, and 5 months into his time period, immigration raids have escalated round so-called sanctuary cities within the Higher Los Angeles space, together with agricultural areas comparable to Ventura and Oxnard.
Earlier that morning, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had been noticed round Ventura and within the Ventura Police Division’s entrance parking zone. The police division posted on social media that its officers weren’t concerned, declaring on Instagram: “Our dedication: Security for all no matter standing.” In the meantime, the Ventura Faculty Basis canceled its fashionable Weekend Market, which attracts 2,000 to five,000 largely Latino distributors and clients each weekend to the faculty’s parking zone, as a consequence of issues about ICE exercise, in response to a recorded message on its telephone.
Lower than three miles away from the police parking zone, a panorama crew of 5 Latinos was working in a entrance yard, constructing an intricate walkway from multi-shaped pavers. The boss mentioned he was fairly positive his employees had their papers, however nobody needed to speak as a result of even residents who’re Latino have been getting swept up in enforcement actions. “Individuals are afraid, however they nonetheless must work,” he mentioned. “So we come to work and see what occurs.”
A number of miles away, a Latino landscaper with a shaggy salt-and-pepper beard waited in his truck whereas his crew loaded wheelbarrows and different gear outdoors a newly landscaped hillside dwelling with a sweeping view of the Ventura coast. He got here to the U.S. from Mexico 30 years in the past, he mentioned, and has been working in landscaping in Ventura for 25 years. He’s single, works with members of the family and “up till two weeks in the past, I had no fear about something,” he mentioned. “Now it [detention] is one thing you are worried about daily.”
He’d deliberate to fuel up his truck that morning however drove previous the station when he noticed “legislation enforcement” autos on the pumps, as a result of he was afraid they have been ICE officers. “I took some precautions,” he mentioned. “They haven’t come up right here but; they’ve simply been on the principle streets. However I pay taxes yearly. I work. So long as we’re right here working and contributing …,” he trailed off and shook his head.
Daniel got here to the united statesfrom Mexico some 20 years in the past, he mentioned. “Issues have been so arduous in Mexico everyone was leaping [to the U.S.] searching for a greater life.” At first he labored each job he might discover, roofing, constructing houses and dealing in a machine store till 2014, “after I see this chance [to be a gardener] and I take it.” Now, he works 5 days per week, he mentioned, visiting eight to 10 yards a day and charging his shoppers, on common, about $150 a month. His solely promoting is phrase of mouth.
If he and his spouse are detained, Daniel mentioned, they’ve household close by who might assist his daughters or “perhaps we might take the ladies to Mexico, however they wish to be right here and keep at school.”
Their eldest, he mentioned, is learning to turn into an anesthesiologist at a close-by college. His daughters are arduous employees, “good children,” so leaving would have an effect on them “actually dangerous.” He glanced at his 15-year-old, who desires to be an orthodontist, and was listening intently.
“I’m all the time searching for a greater life,” he mentioned, “however when you’ve got a household, what we take into consideration most is the children. I believe that is the purpose for all of the mother and father — we’ve our children right here so completely they’ve a greater life than us.”
The concern and frustration are prevalent all through the horticulture world. Terremoto Panorama, a landscaping agency with workplaces in Los Angeles and San Francisco, posted details about immigrant rights prominently on its web site and on Instagram.
“Panorama building, upkeep and the complete labor engine of California wouldn’t be doable with out immigrant labor,” mentioned the Instagram put up, which was accompanied by a number of images of panorama employees with their faces lined by black bins.
“However extra importantly than that, immigrants are our buddies, household and neighbors — our communities and lives are infinitely higher for his or her presence in Los Angeles, the Bay Space and throughout America. The actions of ICE and the Nationwide Guard — aided and abetted by the LAPD — over the previous few days have made clear the xenophobic, vile and violent goals and apparent mal-intent of the present administration.”
The principals of the corporate declined to be interviewed, writing in a textual content that they wish to be delicate to nongovernmental organizations supporting immigrant communities.
Impartial gardening work has lengthy attracted individuals excluded from different jobs, mentioned panorama contractor Mike Garcia, proprietor of Enviroscape LA in Redondo Seashore. After World Warfare II, for example, many Japanese People who had been held in incarceration camps throughout the struggle moved into gardening work as a result of “nobody would rent them for different jobs,” he mentioned.
There have been so many Japanese gardeners round L.A. within the Nineteen Fifties that the California Panorama Contractors Assn. created a particular “Pacific Coast chapter for members of Asian heritage.” Membership waned over time as Japanese households moved away from gardening and the chapter was just lately disbanded, mentioned Garcia, who sits on the board of the affiliation’s Los Angeles/San Gabriel Valley chapter.
As Japanese gardeners pulled away from the sphere, Latino immigrants crammed the void, Garcia mentioned.
“If you happen to’re new to this nation, a Latino searching for a greater life and you’ll’t discover a job since you don’t have any papers, you possibly can decide up a lawnmower and begin mowing lawns,” mentioned Garcia. “Latinos who couldn’t communicate English might nonetheless mow a garden and write out an bill, they usually ultimately took over the gardening commerce.”
Many Latino immigrants have to enter debt to journey to the U.S., in order that they really feel compelled to search out work shortly, mentioned Manuel Vicente, director and producer of Radio Jornalera, the digital communication arm of the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community, which gives info, help and recognition to immigrant employees who’ve restricted choices for work. Gardeners and landscapers are in excessive demand round L.A., he mentioned, and the work doesn’t require promoting and even English fluency.
“They see it as a chance they usually’re pleased with the work they do,” Vicente mentioned. “You possibly can see when there’s a yard no person is taking good care of, and the employees come and convert that yard into one thing stunning, that’s gratifying for them.” And good work helps drum up extra enterprise.
“In Spanish we’ve a saying, ‘El sol sale para todos,’ or the solar rises for everyone. It means everyone has the chance to take a job,” Vicente mentioned.
“Clearly there are specific jobs some individuals are not keen to do … due to the wages or the problem, and others who’re keen to take it. I don’t see that as stealing jobs. For a lot of immigrants it’s the one place the place they will work to make a residing and survive.”
Vicente helped the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community begin Radio Jornalera in Pasadena in 2019 throughout Trump’s first time period to assist Spanish-speaking immigrants perceive their rights.
“I’m a proud migrant, and I believe we should always change the narrative,” Vicente mentioned. “Individuals suppose the whole lot flawed with this nation is due to migrants, and that’s not true. I believe migrants are a part of the answer for this nation and why California has one of many largest economies on the planet.”
Immigrants like Daniel are working and sending their youngsters to varsity, Vicente mentioned. “They got here for a greater life they usually’re constructing a greater nation right here, however they’re additionally sending cash to their households of their former nation, in order that they’re constructing two nations. We should always acknowledge that.”
The ICE raids occurring now really feel like racial persecution, he mentioned. “We’re conscious that they’ve already stopped a number of residents, individuals who have been born right here, as a result of they’re brown and match the profile, so I believe nobody is protected. Everybody who seems Latino — and I don’t know what that’s in that profile, however perhaps it’s only a brown individual — so everyone in our Black and brown communities is below assault.”
Over the weekend, Trump mentioned he had requested ICE to cease raids at huge farms and lodges, however on Sunday he introduced plans to develop immigration enforcement actions in main “Democrat-controlled” cities, together with Los Angeles.
It’s arduous for impartial gardeners comparable to Daniel to do their work unnoticed. Their vehicles and trailers visibly carry the instruments of their commerce. However the work is ready, as are their payments.
What’s most galling, Vicente mentioned, is that “the individuals who don’t need us listed here are benefactors of our work. Perhaps we deal with their mother and father or their youngsters; cook dinner their meals or clear their homes, do their yards or construct their houses. They need our labor, however they don’t wish to acknowledge our humanity.”
