Trump policies lead prominent day laborer activist to leave US with his family

A scroll through the last seven years of reels on the Radio Jornalera Instagram account reveals a consistent theme.

Day laborers like car wash workers, gardeners and street vendors talking about issues like wage theft and labor rights.

Radio Jornalera's studio in Pasadena.

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Courtesy Luis Valentan

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“It was the workers themselves amplifying their own voice and experiences. It was not another Telemundo or Univision, it was themselves,” said Luis Valentan, the founder of Radio Jornalera, a multiplatform project that includes a radio show and social media posts.

Many of those posts have gotten tens of thousands of views. One reel that details people's rights, shared just days after immigration raids started, received 1 million views.

Luis Valentan posted videos advising day laborers about their legal rights in the workplace.

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Courtesy Luis Valentan

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But over the weekend, Valentan, who was also involved in in-person organizing, left the U.S. with his family to move back to Mexico City after 33 years.

The trigger happened a few months ago, while watching a speech by Trump advisor Stephen Miller. What Valentan heard made it clear to him how much the U.S. has changed since he arrived.

“They were talking about the America that they want to see… America for Americans only, White America… all these really awful narratives,” he said.

Valentan has three adult children from a first marriage and two young kids, 4 and 2 years old, from a second marriage. All are U.S. citizens, except him.

“I've been living here more than in my own country, but I don't feel safe. I don't feel like this is a place for me to raise my two little kids,” Valentan said.

Three of his five children have left with him and his wife.

Valentan is one of many people who are undocumented, exactly how many is unclear, who have decided to leave the United States on their own, pushed out by the anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration.

A day laborer leaves

Valentan’s departure stands apart in several ways from the departure of other immigrants: he’s a nationally known leader of a worker’s rights organization.

“It is a loss,” said Angela Sanbrano, co-executive director emeritus of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the umbrella organization that Valentan’s done his work for.

Valentan’s work focuses on “esquinas de jale” or work corners, the street intersections where day laborers gather in groups waiting to be hired. Valentan’s posts aim to create a collective respect among workers and a sharing of knowledge to empower them as they negotiate jobs and pay.

Valentan’s decision to leave is sad, Sanbrano said, but not a surprise.

“[The Trump Administration] is going to make it so miserable for immigrants to live in the United States, that they will self-deport,” she said.

Luis Valentan at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

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Courtesy Luis Valentan

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While Valentan has a strong radio and social media presence, it’s his decades of day labor work, Sanbrano said, that leads day laborers to trust and follow him. She says it’s likely Valentan will keep working with the organization from Mexico to help organize workers across national boundaries.

“[The workers] are my heroes,” Valentan said. “Keep organizing. Resistance is good. I have the privilege to say, ‘I’m leaving.’ I’m making this choice for my family.”

The goodbyes

In recent years, Valentan had been living in Utah. He returned to L.A. over the weekend to say goodbye to friends and colleagues.

“I'll take with me a lot of memories. You know, this is where my kids grew up, this is where my kids were born,” he said. It's also where he arrived when he was 18 years old.

He said he’ll miss the U.S., and Los Angeles.

“I'm gonna miss sunsets, sunrises… beautiful places. Because I think there are beautiful things in this country, but not the idea of one America, White America,” he said.

When he arrives in Mexico City, he said, he plans to reconnect with family and the city he left when he was still a teenager.