California Pot Farm Worker Killed in ICE Raid

Safety at Work

Camarillo, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) – A California pot farm worker died last week after falling during a deportation raid by Immigration Customs Enforcement agents.

Officials said Jaime Alanis Garcia fled from immigration agents who raided the Glass House Farms cannabis operation in Camarillo, Cal., by climbing onto a greenhouse roof. His family said he fell 30 feet and suffered catastrophic injury on July 10. Two days later, his family said, he was taken off of life support.

Officials with the Trump administration said the campaign to find unauthorized immigrants through the use of militaristic raids was necessary, and that Alanis was not one of the people agents were looking for. He had been a worker at the farm for 10 years, the United Food Workers (UFW) union said.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Alanis was not being pursued and that after he fell, federal agents called in a medevac for him. Federal authorities said they had detained 361 purportedly unlawful immigrants during the raid at the cannabis farm, as well as at another cannabis grow operation owned by the same company.

“This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody. Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “CBP immediately called a medevac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible."

Officials said those detained also included protestors who tried to shut the raid down. Four U.S. citizens were arrested on suspicion of assaulting or resisting officers, DHS said.

Officials said the detainees also included children.

"Here's some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility - all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a Thursday X post. “It's now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom's California."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded that California’s aim was to prosecute people suspected of crimes instead of abducting them.

"California prosecutes child exploiters and traffickers,” Newsom said in a post on X. “Trump tear-gasses children, rips them from their parents, and deports farmworkers. Priorities."

Alanis was taken to Ventura County Medical Center and put on life support. His family announced his death on Saturday on a GoFundMe page. His niece, Yesenia Duran, said on the GoFundMe page that he suffered a broken neck, fractured skull and severed arteries.

“We are still looking for justice. As he died due to the reckless ICE raid,” the GoFundMe page said. “He was chased by ICE agents, and we were told he fell 30ft. His injuries (were) catastrophic.”

As of Thursday night, more than $167,000 had been raised.

The Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs said consular staff in Oxnard, Cal., were providing assistance to Alanis’s family, and accompanying his family both in California and in his home state of Michoacan, in central Mexico where his wife and daughter still reside. Mexican officials said they would expedite the return of his remains back to Mexico.

Reports said he was not the only Glass House worker who fled to the greenhouse roofs.

A number of workers climbed to the top of the greenhouses. Videos, sent by Fidel Buscio, 24, one of the workers who fled to the roof, showed the federal agents on the ground below after workers said they had been fired on with tear-gas canisters. Other images shared with Irma Perez, his aunt, showed holes in the roof and Buscio with blood on his shirt and a bandaged arm. Perez said Buscio was eventually apprehended.

Alanis’s death is among the first reported during an ICE raid under President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts as part of his second term.

"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 union wrote in an X post after the event. “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."

The raids have come under intense scrutiny since a federal judge found that immigration agents had been “unlawfully” arresting suspected illegal immigrants in Los Angeles and some surrounding counties. District Judge Maame Ewusi Mensah Frimpong imposed some temporary restraining order The order banned law enforcement from stopping or questioning suspected illegal migrants in the area without some suspicion. The judge also said the detainees and those arrested must have access to legal counsel. 

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