This article was co-published with La Opinión, the leading Spanish-language news outlet in the U.S., and produced under the California Local News Fellowship program at the University of Berkeley.
It is early in the morning when José, a day laborer who prefers not to reveal his full name for security reasons, waits outside a Home Depot store in Orange County to be hired.
While sharing coffee and bread with an advocacy group patrolling the store's parking lot, he tells us that in recent months, it has not been easy to go out and look for work.
José reports that in the last two weeks, attempts to conduct raids at Home Depot, where he usually asks for work, have increased.
“The raids have affected us a lot; we are afraid to come here and expose ourselves, just hoping that someone will hire us to work; they have already taken several people,” said José in Spanish. “And then it's not just about always being on alert, but sometimes, if they hire us, they threaten us with ICE so they don't have to pay us.”