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Los Angeles Times
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
He was ‘trying to stay alive.' Family memorializes man who died in Camarillo immigration raid
Oxnard — In a ceremony that ended in tears and hugs, the family of Jaime Alanís Garcia said goodbye to the father of one who died after trying to escape from federal agents during an immigration raid at the Glass House Farms in Camarillo. Dozens of Alanís Garcia's family members, friends and community members attended the wake at the Camino del Sol Funeral Home in Oxnard. Family members remembered him as a joyful, hardworking man whose death came too soon. 'He was hiding, trying to stay alive,' said his niece, Yesenia Duran. 'He was loved by the community.' On July 10, federal immigration agents raided two cannabis greenhouse operations owned by Glass House Farms, setting off an intense, hours-long standoff between federal agents and protesters outside of the company's Camarillo site. More than 300 undocumented workers were detained, federal officials said, and protesters were injured after agents outside the property shot off tear gas canisters and less-lethal bullets. Alanís Garcia, 56, was fatally injured when he climbed atop a greenhouse and accidentally fell 30 feet while fleeing immigration agents at Glass House, his family said. He was taken to the Ventura County Medical Center, where he was put on life support. Duran announced his death on July 12. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has weighed in, saying that the government would consider legal action against the U.S. after his death. 'This is unacceptable,' she said. The Department of Homeland Security has said that Alanís Garcia was not among those being pursued and that federal agents called in a medevac for him. Duran pushed back on that narrative, saying that they were waiting for more answers and witnesses into her uncle's death. 'It was a reckless raid,' she said, one that cost her uncle his life. On Monday, the body of Alanís Garcia rested in a brown casket with white trim, his head covered by a black beanie. His casket was surrounded by dozens of red roses, a hand drawn photo of him surrounded by monarch butterflies and a large arrangement of white flowers in the shape of a cross, a gift from his wife and daughter in Mexico. They are scheduled to soon receive his body, when he is returned to his native country. Isaac Alanis, 28, grew up living near Alanís Garcia, who was his mother's cousin, and came to see him as an uncle. Alanís Garcia would come over for dinner after work nearly every night, around 6 p.m., and he loved all kinds of foods, from menudo and pozole to Chinese food, which he would eat with a fork, because he didn't know how to use chopsticks, Alanis said. Before arriving at Glass House, Alanís Garcia spent 10 years working at a flower nursery, Alanis said. Sometimes, he said, he would join Alanís Garcia at the Oxnard Sunday flea market to walk around and pass the time. His uncle, he said, was an extrovert and was always laughing. 'He was joyful,' Alanis said as he fought back tears. On his phone, he had saved a 2020 video of his uncle dancing at a family gathering. On Monday, Alanis said he felt encouraged by the Mexican president's message, and it strengthened the family's resolve to get answers about the circumstances of his death, he said. He wore a shirt that depicted a photo of his uncle, and on the back, it read, 'justice for Jaime.' The mood was somber at the funeral home. Outside, a hand drawn photo of Alanís Garcia with wings sat among a box of pan dulces. Representatives from the Mexican government arrived and offered words of support and condolences to the family. The Mexican consular staff in Oxnard has said it would provide assistance to Alanis Garcia's family, offering to accompany them both in California and in his home state of Michoacán in central Mexico. A priest led the audience in a rosary service, calling out Hail Marys in Spanish as they prayed for Alanís Garcia and his relatives. The room was full, with many left standing, as they recited the prayer. Many wiped away tears. When it came time to bid a final farewell, family members held each other tightly as they cried into each other's arms. A guitarist serenaded the audience with songs, including one titled, Caminos de Michoacán, Roads of Michoacán, a ranchera song that pays homage to Alanis Garcia's homeland.
Los Angeles Times
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Man who fled immigration agents has died
Trump administration officials Saturday defended the aggressive campaign to find and deport unlawful 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 agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 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 newsaccounts, his wife and a daughter still reside. In addition, Mexican officials said they would expedite the process to return his remains to Mexico. 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. 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. 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 and other 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. Noem's assertion of a 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 on X Saturday that one of the men apprehended in the raid had been convicted of kidnapping, rape and attempted child molestation. Immigrant rights groups accused federal agents of violating the constitutional rights of individuals by targeting brown-skinned people at Home Depots and car washes, arresting them without probable cause. 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. She said she saw several agents jump on after 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, adding that 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.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Roundup: Officials name men in Ventura, Oxnard deaths; LA nabbed after Simi chase
Authorities released the identity of a man found dead in his car in Ventura Feb. 18. The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office said it was 53-year-old John M. Kimmis who was discovered in his vehicle in the 800 block of West Main Street. He was described as homeless. On Feb. 18 around 3:10 p.m., Ventura police officers responded to a report of a man slumped over the steering wheel of his car parked across the street from a RV park west of the Ventura River, police said at the time. Officers determined that Kimmis had been dead for some time and determined his death was not suspicious. The cause and manner of death have not been determined yet, officials in the medical examiner's office said. Police identified a man who died from stab wounds after being found in Oxnard's La Colonia neighborhood Sunday. Eugenio Lopez Ramirez, 26, of Oxnard, was found with stab wounds in the 100 block of Wilson Avenue at 9:46 p.m., according to the Oxnard Police Department. Both officers and emergency medical personnel tried to revive him before the victim was taken to Ventura County Medical Center where he later died. Lopez Ramirez's death was the second in 2025 and the second in a week for Oxnard. Police previously said they believed a bystander happened upon Lopez Ramirez and called for help. Investigators also said they thought the victim had been stabbed elsewhere and collapsed near Wilson Avenue and First Street. Lopez Ramirez's death remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Manuel Perez III at 805-385-7605or A 33-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after he allegedly stole a purse from a woman in Simi Valley and led police on a chase that reached up to 100 mph. The Simi Valley Police Department said they received the report of a theft from a woman at the Costco at 2660 Park Center Way. A witness saw the man take the purse from the child's seat of a cart, alerted the victim and shared the suspect's description with officers. Simi police spotted the suspect's Toyota Prius about 2 miles away at the Best Buy at 1173 Simi Town Center Way. The man came out of the store and drove from the Simi Town Center lot when officers gave chase. The man refused to stop and led officers onto Highway 118 toward Moorpark and Thousand Oaks before turning back toward Simi Valley. Officers used a vehicle maneuver that disabled the Prius on the 118 and First Street., according to Simi Valley police. Investigators later learned that the man had gone into the store and tried to make a large purchase using the victim's credit cards but the transactions were declined. The Los Angeles man was arrested and booked into Ventura County jail on suspicion of felony evading, grand theft and identity theft, police said. The man also had felony warrant for similar offenses in San Bernardino County, Simi Valley, police said. His was being held on $325,000 bail. He is expected to appear in Ventura Superior Court. Friday afternoon. This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: Men dead in Ventura, Oxnard ID'd; LA man nabbed in Simi
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Roundup: Officials name men in Ventura, Oxnard deaths; LA nabbed after Simi chase
Authorities released the identity of a man found dead in his car in Ventura Feb. 18. The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office said it was 53-year-old John M. Kimmis who was discovered in his vehicle in the 800 block of West Main Street. He was described as homeless. On Feb. 18 around 3:10 p.m., Ventura police officers responded to a report of a man slumped over the steering wheel of his car parked across the street from a RV park west of the Ventura River, police said at the time. Officers determined that Kimmis had been dead for some time and determined his death was not suspicious. The cause and manner of death have not been determined yet, officials in the medical examiner's office said. Police identified a man who died from stab wounds after being found in Oxnard's La Colonia neighborhood Sunday. Eugenio Lopez Ramirez, 26, of Oxnard, was found with stab wounds in the 100 block of Wilson Avenue at 9:46 p.m., according to the Oxnard Police Department. Both officers and emergency medical personnel tried to revive him before the victim was taken to Ventura County Medical Center where he later died. Lopez Ramirez's death was the second in 2025 and the second in a week for Oxnard. Police previously said they believed a bystander happened upon Lopez Ramirez and called for help. Investigators also said they thought the victim had been stabbed elsewhere and collapsed near Wilson Avenue and First Street. Lopez Ramirez's death remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Manuel Perez III at 805-385-7605or A 33-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after he allegedly stole a purse from a woman in Simi Valley and led police on a chase that reached up to 100 mph. The Simi Valley Police Department said they received the report of a theft from a woman at the Costco at 2660 Park Center Way. A witness saw the man take the purse from the child's seat of a cart, alerted the victim and shared the suspect's description with officers. Simi police spotted the suspect's Toyota Prius about 2 miles away at the Best Buy at 1173 Simi Town Center Way. The man came out of the store and drove from the Simi Town Center lot when officers gave chase. The man refused to stop and led officers onto Highway 118 toward Moorpark and Thousand Oaks before turning back toward Simi Valley. Officers used a vehicle maneuver that disabled the Prius on the 118 and First Street., according to Simi Valley police. Investigators later learned that the man had gone into the store and tried to make a large purchase using the victim's credit cards but the transactions were declined. The Los Angeles man was arrested and booked into Ventura County jail on suspicion of felony evading, grand theft and identity theft, police said. The man also had felony warrant for similar offenses in San Bernardino County, Simi Valley, police said. His was being held on $325,000 bail. He is expected to appear in Ventura Superior Court. Friday afternoon. This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Roundup: Men dead in Ventura, Oxnard ID'd; LA man nabbed in Simi
