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The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Colleagues rally round California professor arrested during Ice raid on cannabis farm
Academics and colleagues are rallying around a California university professor who was arrested and charged with assaulting a federal officer during a chaotic immigration raid at a cannabis farm that resulted in a worker's death. John Caravello, a math and philosophy professor at California State University Channel Islands, joined a crowd of protesters who confronted immigration agents when they arrived at Glass House cannabis farm in Camarillo, a community about 50 miles north of Los Angeles. He was among hundreds of people who were arrested at the Glass House facilities in Camarillo and nearby Carpinteria. Those swept up in the raids include protesters such as Caravello, approximately 360 farmworkers, and a US military veteran who worked as a security guard. The sweeping operation has since attracted widespread scrutiny, particularly after the death of a farmerworker who fell from a greenhouse roof while attempting to hide from agents. The action is thought to be the largest raid in terms of arrests and the first death linked to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in California. Caravello, who volunteered as an organizer and immigrant advocate alongside his teaching work, is accused of throwing a teargas canister at law enforcement agents and 'assaulting, resisting, or impeding' officers, according to an affidavit. But witnesses on the scene tell a different story. Genevieve Flores-Haro, associate director of Oxnard-based Micop (Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project), knows Caravello and was among the demonstrators present when he was arrested. On Thursday morning, Flores-Haro said the phones of her team of immigrant rights activists began blowing up with reports from family and friends that agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) were at Glass House farms. When they arrived on scene at the Camarillo farm just after 11am, Ice agents had already set up cones and yellow tape emblazoned with 'Customs and Border Patrol' to block off the street. According to Flores-Haro, a crowd of demonstrators that eventually grew to around 200 people began chanting 'Chinga La Migra', which loosely translates to 'Fuck US Immigration and Border Patrol'. Demonstrators also attempted to use their bodies to block the passage of Ice vans trying to leave with farmworker detainees. Instead of employing nonviolent methods, says Flores-Haro, Ice agents brought out military-style vehicles and launched tear gas into the crowd. Later, agents used additional teargas and rubber bullets against the demonstrators. 'The only teargas canisters that I saw thrown were by Ice agents and the national guard,' said Flores-Haro, who watched Caravello's arrest. Flores-Haro said Caravello appeared to be helping a fellow demonstrator who uses a wheelchair. She said she did not see him touch a canister, but some reports say Caravello attempted to remove a canister stuck beneath the demonstrator's wheelchair. Flores-Haro said the demonstration was largely peaceful and described use of teargas by officers as unnecessary. 'There may have been a few people acting out, but it did not merit this show of force. I'm an American citizen. I was born here. I'm a taxpayer, I'm a USC graduate. My taxpayer dollars were used by the federal government to shoot at me.' After being teargassed, Flores-Haro had difficulty breathing and is still experiencing a cough. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Ice did not respond to multiple Guardian requests for comment about Caravello's arrest and witness accounts of what happened at the farm. Bill Essayli, the recently appointed 39-year-old US attorney for California's central district, who is known as Donald Trump's enforcer in the immigration battle in Los Angeles, posted on X that Caravello was arrested for 'throwing a teargas canister at law enforcement'. Flores-Haro said she and Caravello had spoken out at a Camarillo city council meeting the night before the raid took place. During public comments, Caravello identified himself as a CSUCI professor and a longtime organizer with Ventura County Tenants Union and, more recently, a volunteer with VC Defensa, a coalition of local organizations dedicated to protecting immigrant and refugee populations in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. He asked council members to stand up against Ice's presence in the community, noting that many of his students and their families are undocumented. 'It's my responsibility to protect them, and so I've been patrolling the city streets following armed, masked thugs trying to kidnap my neighbors,' Caravello told the council. Caravello was released on a $15,000 bond on Monday but still faces criminal charges, and is scheduled to be arraigned on 1 August. When he walked free from the Los Angeles Metropolitan detention center earlier this week, a small crowd of supporters cheered, 'John Caravello, you deserve a medal for standing up for the community' – a chant that brought tears to the professor's eyes. In a statement, Cal State Channel Islands said: 'We are currently gathering additional information to fully understand the circumstances of the incident. At this time, it is our understanding that Professor Caravello was peacefully participating in a protest – an act protected under the first amendment and a right guaranteed to all Americans.' Because his case is still pending, Caravello declined to comment, but fellow California Faculty Association colleague Theresa Montaño said her friend was relieved to be released, yet still worries for other detainees. Families are still searching for the whereabouts of some farmworkers and others have shown up in facilities as far away as El Paso, Texas. 'John is part of a labor union and activist organization,' said Montaño. 'Not everyone has those networks to fight for them.' Montaño also said she was confident Caravello, who she described as 'big-hearted', will ultimately be cleared. 'John is not guilty, and we have witnesses to attest to that,' says Montaño. 'He's a seasoned organizer. He would never throw anything at a federal agent.'
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Army vet calls for investigation after being detained for three days in ICE raid
A U.S. Army veteran who was detained during the massive immigration raid in Ventura County last week said Wednesday that he wants 'a full investigation' into how he could have been held behind bars for three days despite being an American citizen. 'What happened to me wasn't just a mistake,' he said in a written statement. 'It was a violation of my civil rights. It was excessive force.' At a news conference Wednesday, Retes, who is 25 and the father of two children, said he had been on his way to his job as a security guard at Glass House farms on July 10 when 'I got caught in the middle between protesters and [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents.' Retes had been focused on his three-year-old daughter's upcoming birthday party and didn't realize that Glass House, one of the largest legal cannabis operations in California, was being raided by scores of heavily armed immigration agents. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security later said they detained more than 360 people in the raid, including numerous undocumented immigrants who had been charged with crimes. As agents moved through the company's greenhouses, many workers fled in a panic. One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, 56, died after he fell three stories trying to evade capture. Protesters and family members of workers, meanwhile, massed at the Glass House gates on Laguna Road, squaring off against federal agents, who deployed chemical agents and less-lethal ammunition. Retes said he had worked at Glass House as a contractor for the security firm Securitas for seven months. He said he unwittingly headed straight into that melee as he drove down Laguna Road to report for his afternoon shift. 'I had no clue about it,' he said. 'When I pulled up, I saw all the cars, I saw all the traffic, and I was just trying to make my way through.' He did not get to work. Instead, he said, agents smashed his car window, pepper sprayed him and dragged him out at gunpoint. 'I let ICE agents know that I'm a U.S. Citizen, that I'm American,' he said. 'They didn't care. They never told me my charges. They sent me away.' Retes, who served in Iraq, said agents never told him why he was being detained at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. He was packed off, without a phone call, access to a lawyer, or even a way to clean the pepper spray residue off his clothes and face, he said. While in custody, Retes said, he became so distressed that he was put on suicide watch, but he was still not allowed to contact an attorney. His wife and sister meanwhile gave tearful interviews to local television stations, pleading for information as to his whereabouts. 'We don't know what to do, we're just asking to let my brother go. He's a U.S. citizen. He didn't do anything wrong. He's a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his car,' his sister Destinee Majana told ABC-7 last week. 'I just don't know where he's at. I've been up since 6 a.m. trying to call the sheriff's, the police department, Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura,' added his wife, Guadalupe Torres. 'They say they don't know.' Finally, on Sunday, Retes said, guards came to his cell and told him he was going to be released. 'An officer walked me downstairs,' he recalled. 'I signed a paper to get my stuff back. That was it. They let me go.' In a statement, officials at the Department of Homeland Security said: 'George Retes was arrested and has been released. He has not been charged. The US Attorney's Office is reviewing his case, along with dozens of others, for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.' Retes said he is home in Ventura now, spending time with his children and 'enjoying being free. I took that for granted.' He recovered his car, which he said still has a smashed window, numerous dents, and a sharp tang of pepper spray. But he said he plans to file a lawsuit against the government over the way he was treated. 'What they did isn't right,' he said. 'I'm here speaking for everyone who doesn't have a chance to speak.'
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Many Mexican immigrants swept up in L.A. raids are deeply rooted in U.S.
MEXICO CITY — More than half of the Mexican citizens detained by U.S. immigration agents and recently interviewed by Mexican consular authorities in Los Angeles had been living in the United States for at least a decade — and more than one-third had lived in the United States for more than 20 years. Almost one-third of those interviewed had U.S.-born children. Those are among the findings of a study released Tuesday by Carlos González Gutiérrez, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles. The findings, the consul said, expose as false the widespread notion that many of those detained during the Trump administration's worksite raids had only recently crossed the border. 'It's clear that the majority of these people had made roots in this country and were integrated into United States society,' the consul said. 'These types of operations create fear, create panic.' Los Angeles County is home to the nation's largest community of immigrants from Mexico. The survey results come from 330 detained Mexican citizens interviewed from June 6 — when U.S. immigration officials launched an ongoing series of raids — to July 7. The individuals — 309 men and 21 women, all adults — were interviewed at a federal building in downtown Los Angeles after being detained 'as a result of operations carried out by various federal agencies,' the consulate said in a news release. Not included in the findings were scores of Mexican citizens detained at other federal sites and during the recent raids at the Glass House cannabis facilities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Of those surveyed, the consulate said, 52% had resided for at least a decade in the United States, and 36% had resided in the country for more than 20 years. Almost 1 in 3 — 31% — had children born in the United States. The detained Mexican citizens included in the survey worked in a wide variety of occupations, the consulate said, but the largest sectors represented were car washes (16.4%), construction (13.3%), factories (13%) and landscaping (11.5%). 'The vast majority are hardworking individuals who have contributed to the economy of Southern California for years,' the consulate said. There was no word on how many of the 330 Mexican citizens had been deported to Mexico or how many decided to fight removal in court. 'Every deportation is devastating for those involved,' the consul said. 'In every case there is a person or family that pays a high price and is emblematic of the high human cost that is implicit behind every deportation.' Diplomats assigned to Mexico's broad web of consulates across the United States are tasked with speaking with detained Mexican citizens and trying to provide them with legal and other help. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has publicly decried the 'persecution' of immigrants during the recent U.S. raids, has directed consular authorities to step up their assistance in light of the Trump administration's mass deportation program.
4 days ago
- Politics
California farmworker who fell from greenhouse roof during chaotic ICE raid dies
SAN FRANCISCO -- A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries. Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known person to die during one of the Trump administration's ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis' niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Duran posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family's only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said. The United Farm Workers reported Alanis' death prematurely late Friday. The Ventura County Medical Center later issued a statement authorized by the family saying he was still on life support. 'These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,' the UFW said recently in a statement on the social platform X. The union does not represent workers at the raided farm. The Department of Homeland Security said it executed criminal search warrants Thursday at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria. Glass House is a licensed cannabis grower. The farm in Camarillo also grows tomatoes and cucumbers. Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly was fleeing agents before he fell about 30 feet (9 meters) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources. Agents arrested some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, DHS said in a statement. Alanis was not among them, the agency said. 'This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody,' DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. 'Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.' Four U.S. citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly 'assaulting or resisting officers,' according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents. During the raid crowds of people gathered outside the facility in Camarillo to seek information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke. Glass House said in a statement that immigration agents had valid warrants. The company said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation. 'Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,' it said. The business was co-founded by Graham Farrar and Kyle Kazan. Farrar has donated to California Democrats including Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump, according to campaign finance records. Kazan has donated to both Democrats and Republicans. This story has been updated with to correct the full name of the UFW. It is United Farm Workers, not United Food also has been updated to correct to 'Alanis,' not 'Garcia,' in the seventh paragraph.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
More details emerged about raid on pot farm as worker dies
Trump administration officials Saturday defended the aggressive campaign to find and deport unauthorized immigrants even as a cannabis farmworker was pulled from life support Saturday, two days after he plunged from a roof amid the mayhem of a Ventura County raid. The death of Jaime Alanís Garcia, 57, announced by his family, comes in a climate of increasing tension marked by weeks of militaristic raids, street protests and violent melees involving federal agents. Alanís' family said he was fleeing immigration agents at the Glass House cannabis operation in Camarillo on Thursday when he climbed atop a greenhouse and accidentally fell 30 feet, suffering catastrophic injury. But the Department of Homeland Security said Alanís was not among those being pursued, and that federal agents quickly called in a medevac in hope of saving him. In the aftermath, federal authorities said they detained more than 300 purported unlawful immigrants in the massive operation, and detained an unannounced number of protesters who sought to shut down the operation. Alanís was taken to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was put on life support. His niece announced his death Saturday on a GoFundMe page, which described him as a husband, father and family's sole provider. The page had raised more than $133,000 by late Saturday. "They took one of our family members. We need justice," the niece wrote. In a statement, the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs said consular staff in Oxnard were providing assistance to the family of Alanís. Consular officials said they were were accompanying Alanís' family both in California and in his home state of Michoacán, in central Mexico, where, according to news accounts, his wife and a daughter still reside. In addition, Mexican officials said they would expedite the process to return his remains to Mexico. Alanís was not the only Glass House worker to take to the roofs. Irma Perez said her nephew, Fidel Buscio, 24, was among a group of men who climbed atop the high glass greenhouses. He sent her videos, which she shared with The Times, that showed federal agents on the ground below, and told her the workers had been fired at, with tear gas canisters. One image shows the broken glass of the roof. In another, Buscio has blood on his shirt and his arm bandaged, she said. He eventually was apprehended. Federal officials said that among those picked up in the raid were 10 minors, ages 14 and up. Eight of the teens had no parent with them. Because of that, federal officials said the legal cannabis farm, one of California's largest, is now under investigation for unspecified child labor violations. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, speaking at an event Saturday in Tampa, Fla., told reporters that getting the children out of the farm was part of the plan from the start. 'We went there because we knew, specifically from casework we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity,' she said. Spokespersons for the Department of Labor's regional office had no response to questions from The Times regarding current or past investigations at the Glass House Farms operations, or of the local labor contractor Glass House used. That company, Arts Labor Services, did not respond to a request for an interview made through its attorneys. Glass House has said it did not violate labor law. The assertion of a prior child labor investigation comes on the heels of a federal judge's order barring federal immigration officials from picking up people at random, based on their ethnicity or occupation. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott also said on X Saturday that one of the men apprehended in the raid had a criminal record for kidnapping, attempted rape and attempted child molestation. Noem decried what she called 'horrendous' behavior of demonstrators who protested Thursday's raid in Camarillo by referencing videos showing rocks being hurled at the vehicles of federal agents, breaking out windows. 'Those individuals that were attacking those officers were trying to kill them," she said. 'Let me be clear. You don't throw rocks at vehicles like that, and you don't attack them like that, unless you are trying to do harm to them physically and to kill them and to take their life.' Decades of work helping cannabis workers through the ordeals of federal drug raids didn't prepare Ventura County activist Sarah Armstrong for the mayhem and trauma she witnessed during the Glass House Farms raid, she said. A military helicopter swung low over fields to flush out anyone hiding in the crops, while federal agents fired tear gas canisters at protesters lining the farm road. In the crush of events, someone shoved a gas mask into Armstrong's hands and pulled her to safety. "It was, in my opinion, overkill," the 72-year-old woman said. "What I saw were very frightened, very angry people." Also among those on the protest line was California State University- Channel Islands student Angelmarie Taylor, 24. She said she saw several agents jump on her professor, Jonathan Anthony Caravello, after he attempted to retrieve a tear gas canister from under an individual's wheelchair. She said the agents fired the tear gas after Caravello and others refused to move out of the way of agents' vehicles. The show of force came without any warning, she said. 'They didn't gave us a dispersal order. They didn't say anything," she said. Caravello, 37, is being held at Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong on Friday issued a temporary order finding that agents were using race, language, a person's vocation or the location they are at, such as a car wash or Home Depot, to form 'reasonable suspicion' — the legal standard needed to detain someone. Frimpong said the reliance on those factors, either alone or in combination does not meet the requirements of the 4th Amendment. Her ruling also means those in custody at a downtown federal detention facility must have 24-hour access to lawyers and a confidential phone line. Noem on Saturday accused the judge of "making up garbage." "We will be in compliance with all federal judges' orders," said Noem, contending the judge "made up" things in the ruling. "We're going to appeal it, and we're going to win," Noem added. Times staff writer Patrick McDonnell in Mexico contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
