Worker Killed In ICE Raid, Classes Go Virtual And Faithful Excused From Mass In Climate Of Fear

LOS ANGELES, CA — Protesters and federal agents carrying out an raid on a cannabis farm in Camarillo clashed violently Thursday as a reported 200 suspected undocumented immigrants were detained and at least eight people were injured, including a man who has since died.

As part of the action, one worker was fatally injured when he fell several stories from a greenhouse. He died on Friday, the United Farm Workers union told NBC. Eight people were transported from around the facility Thursday afternoon to local hospitals for treatment of injuries, the Ventura County Fire Department told the Los Angeles Times.

About 200 suspected undocumented immigrants were detained, the Times reported, while U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said multiple people were arrested on charges of impeding the federal operation.

Four U.S. citizens were arrested for “assaulting or resisting officers,” the department said. Authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of one person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

The violent scene came as tensions continue to escalate in Southern California over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement actions. Civil liberty lawyers this week are fighting the government in court in a bid to end so-called "roving patrols" of agents they claim are detaining people without warrants or probable cause, while Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass took action Friday to beef up the city's sanctuary city policies.

Meantime, the Catholic Church has formally relieved parishioners of the obligation to attend weekly mass and a Cal State university is allowing students to complete their work online amid fears of immigration raids.

Standoff in the fields

During Thursday's farm raid, vehicles from U.S. Customs and Border Protection blocked the road in a largely agricultural area lined with fields and greenhouses. There were military-style vehicles and a helicopter flew overhead.

Video from the scene showed demonstrators gathered on a road between the fields, where uniformed officers stood in a line across from them. White and green smoke could be seen as protesters retreated. Agents could be seen throwing canisters that sprayed what looked like smoke into the air to disperse the crowd.

Footage broadcast by KTLA showed people sitting against a wall with their hands bound in front of them. It's unclear if they were workers or protesters.

State records show the farm has multiple active licenses to cultivate cannabis, a permit to grow in Ventura County. As of last year, the farm used half the land to grow tomatoes and cucumbers, the Ventura County Star reported.

'They told us he won’t make it and to say goodbye'

Relatives of Jaime Alanis, who has worked picking tomatoes at the farm for 10 years, said he called his wife in Mexico during the raid to tell her immigration agents had arrived and that he was hiding with others inside the farm.

“The next thing we heard was that he was in the hospital,” Juan Duran, Alanis’ brother-in-law, said in Spanish, his voice breaking.

It was not immediately clear how Alanis was injured. A doctor told the family that others who brought Alanis to the hospital said he had fallen from the roof of a building.
Alanis had a broken neck, fractured skull and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, said his niece Yesenia, who didn’t want to share her last name for fear of reprisal.

“They told us he won’t make it and to say goodbye,” Yesenia said, crying.

Judith Ramos said she received a call Thursday morning from her father, who worked in the tomato fields.

“He said immigration was outside his job, and if anything happened to take care of everything,” Ramos said, her voice cracking.

The 22-year-old certified nurse assistant said she has two young siblings.

Ramos went to the farm and saw a bus load of people being taken out. She was protesting alongside others when agents sprayed the deterrent.

“They didn't want us to get any closer, and they started firing,” Ramos said. “I got some in my eyes. I had to put milk on my face.”

Ramos said she does not know where her father is and had not had contact with him for more than an hour. His truck is still at the worksite, she said.

It was not immediately known which agencies participated in the raid.

California State Los Angeles

Cal State LA officials this week said professors can move their classes online after hearing from students “scared to take public transit and fearful of driving to campus," the university provost wrote in a letter to the community, the Times reported.

Professors will be allowed to provide excused absences and alternative makeup work for concerned students, while faculty have “the option of working remotely for a limited time due to extraordinary circumstances they are facing,” the letter said.

The school, located on the largely Latino Eastside, is part of a large immigration community, including an unspecified number of undocumented students.

Excused From Mass, Urged To Stay Home

The climate of fear among immigrants and their supporters has spread throughout the Southland along with the raids and arrests conducted by masked agents. City and school officials and community leaders from San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties have decried the sometimes violent warrantless arrests, urging residents at-risk of arrest to stay home.

Bishop Alberto Rojas, the leader of the Diocese of San Bernardino, told the diocese's population of 1.6 million Catholics that they are excused from the obligation to attend Church every Sunday if they have a "genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions."

In an official decree, Rojas also encouraged those parishioners to pursue alternative spiritual practices and encouraged Catholics to seek support from clergy.

In conservative southwest Riverside County, the mayor of Perris urged residents to stay out of danger and to know their rights.

Perris Mayor Michael Vargas shared the city's message on Facebook on Wednesday, warning residents that the city had received reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.

"We urge all residents to remain calm, stay indoors when possible, and know your rights. Do not go out unless necessary," Vargas said. "Stay at home and do not open the door to strangers. This message is for awareness and safety."

'Roving Patrols' Face Legal Test

A Los Angeles federal judge said Thursday she will issue a ruling in the coming days, possibly as early as Friday, on a request by immigrant advocates for temporary restraining orders aimed at restricting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from running immigration enforcement operations in the area, and she appeared to be leaning toward ordering that detainees be given access to lawyers and that immigration stops be allowed only when agents have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

Attorneys with Public Counsel and the American Civil Liberties Union are seeking orders aimed at ensuring people detained are given their legal right to meet with a lawyer, and also aimed at ending so-called "roving patrols" of agents they claim are detaining people without warrants or probable cause, but instead only on suspicion and people's race or ethnicity.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Bashyrov denied those accusations, saying DHS enforcement activities are based on proper evidence and the "totality of the circumstances." U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong appeared critical of the government's arguments in court, saying she wanted to hear more specifics and fewer generalities.

In his argument, Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, told the court that most immigration stops do not happen to white people.

"It's happening with people who appear Latino," he said, adding that the government's roving immigration agents "are stopping people and asking questions later."

Frimpong said it appears that "high-level government officials" seem to approve of the tactics.

Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, Mayor Karen Bass and other regional mayors said they plan to assert their rights under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which enshrines the principle of federalism, where the federal government and individuals states share power, by mutual agreement.

"The federal government has concentrated thousands of armed immigration agents, many of whom lack visible identification, and military troops in our communities, conducting unconstitutional raids, roundups and anonymous detentions, sowing fear and chaos among our residents," Feldstein Soto said. "Today's motion to intervene shows we will not stand by and allow these raids to continue or to become the standard operating procedure in our communities."

Sanctuary City Protections Expanded

LA's mayor on Friday signed an executive directive that aims to beef up Los Angeles' status as so-called sanctuary city. It also calls for records from the Trump administration on all ICE operations since June.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request with the federal government, the city will seek information about the whereabouts of detained individuals, reasons for detainment and the associated costs of the ICE activity, Bass said.

Under the directive, all city departments will be required to ensure they are in compliance with Los Angeles' sanctuary city ordinance, which prohibits the use of city resources and personnel in federal immigration enforcement. It also mandates that each department deliver preparedness plans within two weeks to ensure no immigration activity occurs on city property.

Departments are expected to add so-called immigrant affairs liaison positions to better support immigrant families.

The directive also establishes a working group with the Los Angeles Police Department, the mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, immigrant rights organizations and community leaders to provide guidance for police officers when responding to immigration enforcement activities.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.