Federal agents and protesters clash at major immigration raid at California farm

Federal officers raided a large cannabis farm in Southern California on Thursday, clashing with protesters and firing crowd-control munitions, including tear gas, in the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown on worksites.

Video of the farm in Camarillo, Ventura County, showed officers in camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks, and accompanied by military-style vehicles, firing a large number of crowd-control munitions that emitted white gas during the raid.

The agents were “executing criminal search warrants,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on social media about the operation.

One worker, Jaime Alanis, died from injuries sustained during the raid, according to Daniel Larios, spokesperson for the United Farm Workers.

At a second farm, in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, officers carrying out an immigration raid encountered protesters and deployed “flash devices and smoke devices,” Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-California) said in a statement.

Ten young people, including eight unaccompanied minors, were discovered at one of the farms, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said on social media, adding that all of them were unauthorized to be in the United States. He said the facility is under investigation for child labor violations.

The worksite raids follow a string of immigration enforcement actions that have terrified Latino communities throughout the state, sparking widespread backlash from Californians.

The raids targeted Glass House Farms cannabis growing facilities. The company confirmed on social media that it was visited by officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said it “fully complied with agent search warrants.” California legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, and Glass House Farms has multiple active licenses in the state to grow cannabis, according to the Associated Press.

Carbajal said he tried to conduct oversight of Thursday’s raid in Carpinteria but was denied entry. He accused agents of showing “disproportionate displays of force.”

“These militarized ICE raids are not how you keep our communities safe,” he said.

The administration’s ramped-up worksite raids are aimed at boosting arrests to 3,000 a day across the country. But the operations have sparked backlash from the business community and farmers, including members of President Donald Trump’s base who depend on undocumented labor.

The administration announced a pause in raids on farms, hotels and restaurants in June. But days later, DHS officials reversed that guidance.

Trump has said in recent days that the administration is working on a system that would allow some undocumented farmworkers to remain in the United States, but has offered few details.

Despite a pledge by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem to target “the worst of the worst,” the administration is increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal records, as The Washington Post reported last month.

Federal agents and protesters clash at major immigration raid at California farm

Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers union, said in a statement about Thursday’s raids that agents detained farmworkers, including U.S. citizens, for eight hours or longer. Some received critical injuries, Romero added, calling the raids “violent and cruel.”

Carbajal said he believed 10 people had been detained at the Carpinteria site. He added that the agents used “various flash devices and smoke devices” and that a piece of shrapnel from one of the devices had injured a child.

Meanwhile, Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, questioned the government’s statement that the raided farm was violating child labor laws.”

“If there were massive child labor law violations on the farm that was raided in Camarillo as this administration claims, why were the potential victims & other innocent workers arrested and not the employer?” Gonzalez wrote on X.

Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, wrote on X on Thursday evening that federal agents “arrested multiple individuals” for interfering with the raid, and warned that others who obstructed raids would be arrested and charged with a federal offense.

He also said the FBI had issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of an individual who appeared to fire a weapon at federal officers, according to footage from local channel ABC7.

Local media reported that hundreds of protesters, and dozens of troops and federal agents, were present at the standoff in Camarillo.

A DHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement early Friday: “ICE and CBP law enforcement rescued 8 unaccompanied migrant children from what looks like exploitation, violation of child labor laws and potentially human trafficking or smuggling.”

Andrew Dowd, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department, said that as of late Thursday, eight people had been transferred to area hospitals for treatment. An additional four people were treated at the scene, he said.

Dowd stressed that the department is committed to responding to emergency calls from all Ventura County community members. “Immigration is never a factor in any care that we provide,” he said. “In the relationship we have with the community, we want to make sure we’re communicating that very, very quickly.”

Federal agents stand guard in Camarillo as vans leave the farm that was raided.