Farmworker dies after fleeing federal raid in California

TOM KISKEN/THE STAR / USA TODAY NETWORK VIA IMAGN IMAGES

The Oxnard Fire Department provides ambulance service at the protest triggered by an immigration raid near Camarillo on Thursday.

A Mexican farmworker died today from injuries sustained during a federal immigration raid the day before in an agricultural region north of Los Angeles, according to the United Farm Workers union.

The farmworker, Jaime Alanís, fell several stories to the ground from a greenhouse Thursday, when federal agents raided a state-licensed cannabis farm in Ventura County.

“During the chaos, he fell 30 feet or more, and experienced devastating spinal and skull injuries,” Elizabeth Strater, a United Farm Workers vice president, said in an interview.

An official familiar with the circumstances of the farmworker’s death said he was from the Mexican state of Michoacán, had been working at the farm for more than a decade and had been trying to flee from agents when he fell. He was in his late 50s.

Strater said that after the fall, he was transported to a hospital, where he was on life support for a time, and he died today.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said he had not been in federal custody and denied that the agents involved in the raid were the reason he climbed the greenhouse. “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 in a statement. Agents called for help, she added, “to get him care as quickly as possible.”

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The Ventura County coroner’s office said that it had yet to receive a death report in Alanís’ name.

Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department, said that eight people had been transferred to area hospitals in response to 911 calls Thursday and that four other people had been treated at the scene.

In a statement, Teresa Romero, president of the UFW, said that several farmworkers had been critically injured and that others, including U.S. citizens, remained unaccounted for after the enforcement actions. She said those citizens who were detained “were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones” before being released.

The Trump administration last month began to aggressively target worksites in California, including farms, as it seeks to sharply bolster the number of arrests and deportations of immigrants in the country without legal permission. President Donald Trump has said that he wanted to allow some farmworkers to stay in the country legally. However, raids in agricultural areas have persisted.

Federal agents, backed by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles, raided two locations operated by Glass House Farms on Thursday. One was in Camarillo, a Ventura County town about 50 miles outside Los Angeles, and another was in Carpinteria, a town in Santa Barbara County.

Yesenia Duran, who described herself as Alanís’ niece on a GoFundMe page she created before his death, said her uncle “was just a hard-working, innocent farmer. He has his wife and daughter waiting for him.” Duran wrote that her uncle was his family’s provider, adding, “We need justice.”

News of the raids on Thursday spread rapidly, prompting protesters and community members to rush to the scenes. Clashes broke out between hundreds of protesters and the agents.

During the confrontation in the Camarillo area, one protester was seen on video appearing to fire a pistol at officers. The Department of Homeland Security said today that the protester fired a gun at law enforcement officers and that the FBI was offering $50,000 for information leading to the person’s arrest. The agency said four U.S. citizens were being criminally processed for assaulting or resisting officers and that the protesters had damaged vehicles.

“At least 10 migrant children were rescued from potential exploitation, forced labor and human trafficking,” Homeland Security officials said in a statement.

Glass House Farms said late Thursday that its greenhouses had been visited by federal authorities with search warrants and that the company had fully complied. It is legal for licensed companies to grow cannabis in California.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

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