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 who are in the U.S. illegally.
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.
‘Mountain of evidence’ halts aggressive tactics
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.
The ruling, made in response to a lawsuit from immigration advocacy groups, says the administration is violating the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. 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.
Warnings on food supply
California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides legal services and other support to farm workers, is working on picking up cheques for detained Glass House workers, said directing attorney Angelica Preciado.
Some Glass House workers detained during the raid were able to call family members only 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 spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin rejected those allegations, saying in an emailed statement that “allegations that ICE or CBP agents denied detainees from calling legal assistance are unequivocally false.”
The Trump administration deported more than 200 immigrants by invoking the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime measure — alleging they were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. Andrew Chang explains how Trump is interpreting the language of the 1798 law in order to avoid the standard immigration court system, and why experts say it’s a slippery slope.
Some citizen workers who were detained reported being released from custody only after deleting photos and videos of the raid from their phones, UFW president Teresa Romero said in a statement.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize 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.
