California worker dead, hundreds arrested after cannabis farm raid
Photo:
AFP / Blake Fagan
By
Leah Douglas,
of Reuters
A California farm worker died from injuries sustained when US immigration agents raided a cannabis operation and arrested hundreds of workers, according to a farm worker advocacy group.
Separately, a federal judge in California ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt some of its most aggressive tactics in rounding up undocumented immigrants.
Dozens of migrant-rights activists faced off with federal agents in rural Southern California on Thursday (local time) in the latest escalation of President Donald Trump's campaign for mass deportations of immigrants in the US illegally.
His administration had made conflicting statements about whether immigration agents would target the farm labour workforce, about half of which was unauthorised to work in the US, according to government estimates.
The Department of Homeland Security said about 200 people in the country illegally were arrested in the raid, which targeted two locations of the cannabis operation Glass House Farms.
Agents also found 10 migrant minors at the farm, the department said in an emailed statement.
The facility is under investigation for child labour violations, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott posted on X.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The scene at the farm was chaotic, with federal agents in helmets and face masks using tear gas and smoke canisters on angry protesters, according to photos and videos of the scene.
Several farm workers were injured and one died on Friday from injuries sustained after a nine-metre fall from a building during the raid, said United Farm Workers national vice president .
Elizabeth Strater.
The worker who died was identified as Jaime Alanis on a verified GoFundMe page created by his family, who said they were raising money to help his family and for his burial in Mexico.
"He was his family's provider," Alanis' family wrote on the GoFundMe page. "They took one of our family members - we need justice."
US citizens were detained during the raid and some are still unaccounted for, Strater said.
DHS said its agents were not responsible for the man's death, saying that "although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet".
Agents immediately called for a medical evacuation, DHS said.
California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides legal services and other support to farm workers, was working on picking up checks for detained Glass House workers, said directing attorney Angelica Preciado.
Some Glass House workers detained during the raid were only able to call family members after they signed voluntary deportation orders and were told they could be jailed for life, because they worked at a cannabis facility, Preciado said.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin rejected those allegations, saying "allegations that ICE or CBP agents denied detainees from calling legal assistance are unequivocally false".
Some detained citizen workers reported only being released from custody, after deleting photos and videos of the raid from their phones, UFW President Teresa Romero said.
"These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families," Romero said.
Farm groups have warned that mass deportation of farm workers would cripple the country's food supply chain.
In her most recent comments, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be "no amnesty" for farm workers from deportation, but Trump has said migrant workers should be permitted to stay on farms.
US District Court Judge Maame Frimpong granted two temporary restraining orders blocking the administration from detaining immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally based on racial profiling and from denying detained people the right to speak with a lawyer.
The ruling, made in response to a lawsuit from immigration advocacy groups, says the administration is violating the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution by conducting "roving patrols" to sweep up suspected undocumented immigrants based on their being Latinos, and then denying them access to lawyers.
"What the federal government would have this Court believe - in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case - is that none of this is actually happening," Frimpong wrote in her ruling.
Additional reporting by Ted Hesson, Kanishka Singh, Kristina Cooke and Brad Brooks.
- Reuters
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