1 reported dead in California as U.S. judge orders halt to immigration crackdown tactics
CBC
A California farm worker died on Friday after U.S. immigration agents raided a cannabis nursery and arrested hundreds of workers, a worker advocacy group said, while a federal judge 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 during the operation, the latest escalation of President Donald Trump's campaign for mass deportations of immigrants.
A California judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from racially profiling immigrants as it seeks deportation targets and from denying immigrants the right to access lawyers during their detention.
The Trump administration has made conflicting statements about whether immigration agents will target the farm labour workforce, about half of which is unauthorized to work in the United States, according to government estimates.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said about 200 people in the country illegally were arrested in the raid, which targeted two locations of the cannabis operation Glass House Farms, in Camarillo and Carpinteria.
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, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott posted on social media platform X.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The scene at the farm on Thursday 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 hurt and one died on Friday from injuries sustained after a nine-metre fall from a building during the raid, said Elizabeth Strater, national vice-president of the United Farm Workers.
The worker who died was identified as Jaime Alanis on a verified GoFundMe page, which said it was set up to raise money to help his family and for his burial in Mexico.
"He was his family's provider. They took one of our family members. We need justice," Alanis's family wrote on the GoFundMe page.
U.S. 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.
The melee in southern California came as the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits across the country over its controversial tactics in tracking down undocumented immigrants for deportation.
U.S. 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.
