‘Whom Shall I Fear?’ In South Texas, Two Bakers Face Trump’s Immigration Wrath.

The New York Times ^ | May 17, 2025Updated 2:01 p.m. ET | Edgar Sandoval

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A raid on Abby’s Bakery in Los Fresnos heralded the crackdown to come. Ahead of the owners’ trial for “harboring” undocumented workers, the community is seeing the impact of the president’s policies.

Most mornings, Leonardo Baez, a father of seven, wakes up hours before sunrise to mix bread dough in the border city of Los Fresnos, Texas. Punishing and laborious work, yes, but owning a beloved bakery has been a lifelong dream of his, he said.

It is now in jeopardy.

In February, federal agents swooped down on his shop, Abby’s Bakery, detained workers they said were in the country illegally and pressed charges against the owners, Mr. Baez and his wife, Nora Alicia Avila.

As their July trial nears, many in this Latino-majority community of 8,500 close to Brownsville, Texas, are learning what life will be like under President Trump and his immigration crackdown. More than 52 percent of Los Fresnos’s once-bright-blue Cameron County voted for Mr. Trump in November, but his aggressive policies are dividing families and rattling local business where undocumented residents are indistinguishable from the larger border population.

If found guilty of the most serious charge, conspiring to transport and harbor undocumented migrants, both Mr. Baez, 56, and Ms. Avila, 46, face sentences of up to 10 years in prison.

The Justice Department has framed the case as open-and-shut: Law enforcement officers found a room in the shopping plaza that includes the bakery with six mattresses on the floor housing employees unauthorized to work in the country. The raid, the government said, found two migrants “unlawfully present in the United States” and six visa holders “who did not have the right to work.”

The Baez family agreed to discuss their lives, but at the suggestion of their lawyers,...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If our nation accepted all economic refugees our nation would be destroyed.

See "Camp of the Saints"

[Texas resident]

You speak like a valley resident.
I worked in the RGV for 20 years going back to the 80’s.
Same problems over and over.
I thought that GW Bush would secure our border since he lived 6 hours from the valley, but no he didn’t.

[MrRelevant]

Thou shalt fear ICE

[Elsie]

... but his aggressive policies are dividing families and rattling local business where undocumented residents are indistinguishable from the larger border population.

Well, the Gringoes maybe can't TELL THEM APART, but I'll bet that...

Anyway It's about time that actual law is INFORCED!

AGgressive? Who knew!!

[maro]

Many are exploited. Because they are illegal, they cannot complain about maltreatment. If you care about human rights, you should reject illegal immigration.

[GranTorino]

Baking bread is not punishing and laboristic? work.
Logging,Mining,Erecting Steel is punishing.

[GranTorino]

I guess the article said laborious.

[HollyB]

Does this administration know that many of those who came over illegally were given green cards without ever meeting with an immigration judge - even one time?!!! Those who were given permanent resident status under the CHNV program were given green cards within a couple years after their arrest at the border. So, while they are raiding and arresting illegals, they need to do some investigation on the many who were given green cards without even seeing an immigration judge, nor were they vetted. Start in Florida. Don’t ask me how I know - but I do .

[from occupied ga]

Did they know they were harboring illegals? Almost certainly yes. Did they pay them competitive wages, and with hold taxes and SS? Almost certainly no. And we’re sure that the media is trying to get us to feel sorry for them. I don’t know about anyone else, but my sympathy meter is reading zero.

[chopperk]

Its just beginning. The dems are pushing for socialized gov’t by bringing in illegals who come from dictatorships because they know how to survive and will be the majority in many cases.

[suthener]

“Law enforcement officers found a room in the shopping plaza that includes the bakery with six mattresses on the floor housing employees unauthorized to work in the country.”

I know this is cliche, but if your business cannot survive without slave labor, which is what this is, you don’t deserve to be in business. This is ridiculous.

[Wuli]

Temporary work visas needed in such border areas.

[HollyB]

Those who came from dictatorships know how to survive??? On the contrary! They learned how to be dependent on govt….that’s what they learned. Perhaps decades ago it was different. But, times have changed . They have become accustomed to having less and the drive is just not there. They settle and live off the govt.

[sport]

Hillary Clinton is.

[Rappini]

I can’t understand why the left can’t grasp the meaning of Illegal Immigrants.

[BFW]

A sentence of ten years each and a full allocution by them both stating how they did not pay taxes on the money the paid the illegals if they were paid at all. Also how they the owners, profited by NOT have to pay the prevailing wage to those who were citizens or those who were authorized to work.

[ro_dreaming]

Why do I care if illegal aliens and the people that sponsor / help them are scared?

Oh, I don’t.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If we bother to prove the 2020 election was stolen, we can invalidate everything FJB did during his term and arrest all his accomplices.

Wishful thinking, I know.

[GingisK]

It he was making good money he should filled out the paperwork and paid the fees.

[Texan5]

I have relatives in the valley, but I grew up in rural W Texas. I live in a rural area about 50 miles north and West of SA now. I hate cities-will not live in one again...

My 1st husband and I lived and worked in SA-construction industry there was mojado central for as long as I can remember-but at least in the 80’s when la migra showed up, the company owner knew he/she was in deep s***-not today. There was also a restaurant in the downtown area that employed/harbored so many illegals that the owner was busted at least once every few months-we joked about Mario’s crime of the month...