Latest news with #JaimeAlanisGarcia
Los Angeles Times
17-07-2025
- 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.'
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Details emerge about pot-farm immigration raid as worker dies
Trump administration officials defended the aggressive campaign to find and deport unauthorized immigrants even as a cannabis farmworker was taken off life support two days after he plunged from a roof amid the mayhem of a Ventura County raid. The death of Jaime Alanís Garcia, 57, announced Saturday by his family, comes amid 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 Farms 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 that Alanís was not among those being pursued and that federal agents called in a medevac for him. Federal authorities said afterward that they detained 361 purported unlawful immigrants in the crackdowns at the site in Camarillo and another cannabis grow operation in Carpinteria owned by the same company, as well as protesters who allegedly sought to shut down the raid. Four U.S. citizens were arrested on suspicion of assaulting or resisting officers, according to the DHS. Alanís was taken to the 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 the family's sole provider. The page had raised more than $149,000 by noon Sunday, well over its initial $50,000 goal. "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 Alanís' family. Consular officials said they 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 return of 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 is bandaged, she said. He eventually was apprehended. Federal officials said that among those picked up in the raids were 14 minors. Several of the teens had no parent with them, officials said. 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. The Labor Department's regional office did not respond to questions from The Times regarding current or past investigations of 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 said Saturday on X 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 the 'horrendous' behavior of demonstrators who protested Thursday's raid in Camarillo, referencing videos showing rocks being hurled at the vehicles of federal agents, breaking 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 among 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 Cal State Channel Islands student Angelmarie Taylor, 24. She said she saw several agents jump on her professor, Jonathan Anthony Caravello, 37, after he attempted to move a person in a wheelchair after a tear-gas canister landed underneath it. 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 is being held at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center. U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli issued a statement on X saying Caravello is being charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer. The professor was arrested on suspicion of throwing a tear-gas canister at law enforcement and will appear in court Monday, Essayli said. Friends had been trying to find Caravello since he was detained Thursday and were able to confirm his location only on Saturday, attorney Vanessa Valdez of Libre_805 told The Times after a news conference outside the detention center Sunday. Valdez said she began helping Caravello's students and friends on Friday "who checked local jails, hospitals and couldn't find him. We had a good idea he would likely be here [the federal Metropolitan Detention Center] but they would not confirm he was there on Friday." Valdez said she finally met briefly with Caravello on Sunday and was surprised to learn he was being held in one of the detention center's Special Housing Units. "That's usually where they hold the more serious offenders, but my client has no criminal background and the officers who were helping me to see him were very surprised," she said. 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, violates 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 J. McDonnell in Mexico City 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.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Horrific ICE Raids Exposed: Farmworker on life support and more arrests go viral
An ICE raid on a farm in Ventura County, California had an especially brutal outcome. Jaime Alanís Garcia, a Mexican farmworker who spent nearly a decade picking tomatoes in California, is now on life support after falling 30 feet while fleeing an immigration raid. We also spotlight a viral video showing ICE officers chasing a Honduran landscaper into a Southern California surgical center, where staff bravely demanded a warrant before his arrest. MSNBC Contributor Paola Ramos joins MSNBC's The Weekend: Primetime to discuss whether scenes like this sway American opinions on immigration.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- 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.
NBC News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
California farmworker dies after chaotic federal immigration raid, family says
A cannabis farmworker who was critically injured during a chaotic immigration raid by federal authorities in Southern California died Saturday, according to his family. Jaime Alanis Garcia's death came days after he fell roughly 30 feet during a raid by federal immigration authorities at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, a city about 50 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Garcia's family told NBC Los Angeles that he broke his neck and skull in the fall and was placed on life support shortly afterward — until his wife could travel from Mexico to be by his side before he died. 'His wife and parents decided today to let him rest. He has passed away,' his niece said in a statement Saturday. His family acknowledged to NBC Los Angeles that Garcia would not have survived the past fews days had he not been connected to an assistive breathing machine. Neither the United Farm Workers nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately return a request for comment. Immigration officials said in a statement Friday that Garcia was not in federal custody when he fell. 'Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet,' Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. 'CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.' The raid drew hundreds of demonstrators, some of whom threw rock and bricks at cars belonging to federal agents. In response, federal agents deployed less-lethal weapons and tear gas at the protesters, while employees were being arrested inside the cannabis grow house. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Friday night that he watched the protests 'in disbelief,' adding that immigration authorities should use 'whatever means is necessary' to arrest people who do not obey the law. The cannabis farm where Garcia worked was one of two Glass House properties federal officers raided Thursday. Roughly 200 people were arrested in the two operations, according DHS. The raids came more than a month after protests against similar operations in Los Angeles virtually shut down parts of the city and captured the nation's attention. In response, Trump took the rare step of deploying the National Guard to quell protesters.
