Immigration raid on California cannabis plantation ends in tragic death

Last Thursday’ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency) have conducted raids on two cannabis farms operated by Glass House Farms à Carpinteria and Camarillo, in Southern California.

The operation resulted in a’arrest of around 200 workers, many of whom were undocumented, and by the death of Jaime Alanis, a farm worker who had been picking tomatoes on the site for over ten years.

The workers were held for hours, forced to delete videos from their phones and marked in ink on the hands to indicate their migratory status.

According to the union United Farm Workers (UFW), Alanis was mortally wounded when he fell 9 metres from a building as he tried to escape the descent. His death was confirmed the following day. The union expressed its sadness on social networks: «We regret to confirm that a farm worker has died as a result of injuries sustained during yesterday's immigration operation.»

The union also reported that some American citizens were still missing Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the raids had been carried out under valid search warrants and had resulted in the arrest of four American citizens for assault or resisting federal agents. A $50,000 reward was offered for any information leading to the identification of a suspect who had shot at officers.

Smoke, helicopters and terrified families

Those present described a highly militarized operation : agents in in camouflage, masked and equipped with tear gas, smoke grenades filling the air and helicopters flying over the area. Protesters, including family members of the detained workers, gathered outside the farms to demand information, but were met with tear gas fire and aggressive crowd control tactics.

Images and videos posted on social networks show children fleeing smoke, and people with breathing difficulties and at least three civilians hospitalized for breathing difficulties. Visit governor of California, Gavin Newsom, reacted sharply by republishing a video accompanied by the following comment: «Children fleeing tear gas and crying on the phone because their mother has just been kidnapped in the fields. Trump calls me newscum, but he's the real scumbag.«

https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1943469956181692448

According to Euronews, National Guard had been deployed to support ICE operations in California, with troops, some on horseback, patrolling public areas of Los Angeles. This militarized response raised questions about its proportionality, particularly given the non-violent nature of the workplaces targeted.

Glass House: «We're fully compliant».»

Glass House Farms, a legal cannabis producer founded by former LAPD officer Kyle Kazan, issued a statement acknowledging the searches and affirming that it had fully complied with the search warrants. The company insisted that it had never knowingly violated hiring practices or employed minors, and that it was now helping workers obtain legal representation.

Public records confirm that Glass House holds several licenses for growing cannabis in California. Licensed cultivation and sale of cannabis are legal under state law, But the migratory status of agricultural workers remains a legal grey area, particularly in a sector which, although regulated, often relies on undocumented labor due to systemic labor shortages.

The raid drew strong criticism from local and federal authorities. The Deputy Salud Carbajal, a Democrat from California, declared that he had seen himself deny access to the site of the search and that he had subsequently learned that ten workers were taken into custody. He accused ICE of «targeting agricultural workers» and violate basic standards of transparency.

The timing of this operation adds to the controversy. A few weeks earlier, the federal government had ordered ICE to stop raiding farms, before reversing this decision a few days later.