Lelo Juarez

Longtime farmworker organizer Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week in what many believe to be retaliation for his organizing. Juarez was pulled over while driving his wife to work. ICE agents shattered Juarez’s window and dragged him out of the vehicle for exercising his right to remain silent, his brother said. Juarez helped form Familias Unidas por la Justicia, an independent farmworker union that emerged out of a 2013 work stoppage by berry workers in Washington state. He himself began working as a berry picker at 14, and has fought for the rights of farmworkers since, advocates say.