A Heart Attack, A Fatal Fall, A CSU Professor: 5 ICE Arrests Rattling CA

As the Trump Administration's drive to deport undocumented immigrants spurs panic and unrest in California, mounting incidents of violent arrests have exacerbated the tension.

During a large-scale sweep last week, a farmworker fell 30 feet to his death. And last month, a woman selling tamales outside a hardware store suffered a heart attack while being detained.

Stories like theirs underscore the chaotic methods being employed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to detain people.

“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the United Farm Workers said recently in a statement posted to X.

The U.S. Department of Justice contends the federal agents, however, have been the repeated victims of violence initiated by protesters egged on by California politicians and community leaders.

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli tweeted a warning during last week's raid at a marijuana farm in Ventura County, where the worker fell to his death

"Federal agents are executing a search warrant at this marijuana farm. Agents have already arrested multiple individuals for impeding this operation and will continue to make arrests," Essayli wrote. "Don’t interfere. You will be arrested and charged with a federal offense...FBI has issued a $50,000 award for information leading to the conviction of an Unknown Subject who appeared to fire a pistol at Federal Law Enforcement Officers near Camarillo."

Here are 5 ICE arrests rattling the Golden State:

CA Farmworker Dies Trying To Escape ICE In Mass Raid

A farmworker fell from a greenhouse roof in Ventura County during a chaotic ICE raid on Thursday, July 10. Two days later, Jaime Alanis, 57, died of his injuries.

He is the first known person to die during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operation.

"Our hearts are heavy for the grieving family of Jaime Alanis, who died from injuries sustained during a chaotic raid on Thursday," United Farm Workers wrote on X. "We'll do everything we can to support them. We continue to work with hundreds of farm worker families navigating the aftermath of this violent raid."

Alanis reportedly fell from a greenhouse roof and broke his neck during an immigration raid at a licensed cannabis facility on the Central Coast.

Just before, Alanis had called his family to tell them he was hiding from agents.

The Department of Homeland Security said it acted on criminal search warrants Thursday at Glass House Farms locations in Camarillo and Carpinteria. The farm in Camarillo also grows cucumbers and tomatoes.

During the raid, some 200 people were arrested on suspicion of being in the country illegally.

DHS Assistant Secretary spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Alanis was not being pursued by ICE.

“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet," she said. "CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”

Before Going Missing, Woman Perched Atop Scaffolding Says Agents Fired Rubber Bullets At Her

A woman who is still missing after the same immigration sweep at Glass House Farms in Camarillo on Thursday shot a video of what happened to her moments before she was taken by ICE agents.

The woman, only identified as Irma, is seen in a video obtained by KTLA standing atop metal scaffolding inside the grow facility. In Spanish, she told ICE agents below: “Do what you want, say what you say, I’m not coming down.”

The agents then begin to climb up the scaffolding toward her and the video goes dark. There is no other footage to indicate what happened to Irma after the raid. In an audio message by Irma to family members she said in Spanish, “They are capturing us. They were using something to bring a young man down...They were shooting rubber bullets at us. They hit us a lot.”

Woman Suffers Heart Attack During Sweep At Lowe's

A 54-year-old woman named Matilde, who declined to give the media her last name due to her immigration status, said she was selling tamales near Lowe's Home Improvement Store when she heard that federal immigration agents were nearby.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Matilde shared her story, telling the newspaper she became nervous and started to pack up her stand. That's when a white car with tinted windows pulled up. She said she didn't run.

She says one of two agents ran over to her without identifying himself and grabbed her from behind. The agent never provided a warrant or requested documentation of her immigration status, Matilde told the Times.

“I could feel his vest against my ear,” she said. “I told him I couldn’t breathe.”

When a second agent arrived, he grabbed her hands to handcuff her. During the commotion, one of the agents accidentally lifted her shirt, which exposed her bra. As she reached to pull her shirt down, she believes the agents thought she was resisting, so they used more force.

“I don’t know if I fainted or if they threw me down,” she told the newspaper.

When she woke up, she was pleading with agents, insisting that she couldn't breathe and complaining of chest pain.

“But they didn’t listen. They ignored me.”

When a third agent arrived, he told her he was a paramedic. The agents dialed 911 after learning she had high blood pressure and diabetes. After arriving at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, she was treated for partially blocked arteries and was told she had suffered a heart attack. She was hospitalized for five days, the LA Times reported.

Man Repeatedly Punched In Head, Neck During Workplace Raid

A viral video captured the moment when an Orange County landscaper, Narisco Barranco, was pinned to the floor by three federal immigration agents as they struck him in the face and neck repeatedly on June 21

His son, Alejandro Barranco, a U.S. Marine veteran, called the agents' actions "inhumane" and told NPR that the situation was "unprofessional and uncalled for."

"I don't think it represents our law enforcement officers, anything like that. I was really, really mad when I saw that. I couldn't believe it," Alejandro said.

Barranco has worked as a landscaper in the U.S. since the '90s without legal immigration status. Meanwhile, Alejandro and his brothers, who are active duty Marines, have been exploring a program called Parole in Place, an immigration pathway available to immediate relatives of military members, NPR reported.

DHS spokesperson McLaughlin told NPR that Barranco had tried to run from agents before he "swung a weed whacker" at an agent's face.

"The agents took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation in a manner that prioritizes the safety of the public and our officers," she said.

However, Alejandro disputes these claims.

"The movement you see from the weed whacker, I think, is a natural instinct, because he gets [pepper] sprayed seconds before that, I think it was just his own body, his own instincts, just reacting to that spray," he told NPR.

Cal State Calls For Release Of Professor Arrested At Immigration Raid Protest

A professor at the Channel Islands campus was reportedly kidnapped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a protest last week, according to the California State University faculty union, but, according to Essayli, the U.S. attorney, the man was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister.

Jonathan Anthony Caravello, a 37-year-old philosophy professor, was kidnapped by unidentified immigration agents around 2:30 p.m. Thursday at a protest against immigration enforcement activity near the campus, according to the California Faculty Association.

“4 masked agents dragged Jonathan away ... without identifying themselves, without giving the reason for arrest, and without disclosing where they are taking him,” the union wrote in a social media post Friday.

In a follow-up post Saturday, the union wrote that it had located Caravello and was communicating with his family and working to get him legal support.

California State University Channel Islands issued a statement Saturday, acknowledging it was “aware of reports” that Caravello, who is a U.S. citizen, was taken into federal custody. Read more about the incident here.

FAST FACTS:

• California is among the U.S. states with the highest population of undocumented immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center.
• California is the state with the third highest number of immigration arrests after Texas and Florida, with arrests up 123% compared to 2024, according to the New York Times.
• Since the beginning of June, ICE has arrested nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants in the Los Angeles area, the NYT reported.
• It is unclear how many related arrests have been made across the state during that period. Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch.

The Associated Press and Patch Editor Anna Schier contributed to this report.