Trump team defends ICE raid at California marijuana farm where children were allegedly found working
President Donald Trump’s administration has defended violent immigration raids targeting cannabis farms in California, where masked federal agents discovered allegedly undocumented minors who are victims of “exploitation” and “potentially human trafficking or smuggling,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The United Farm Workers union said several workers were critically injured during the raids, while other targeted workers, including a U.S. citizen, “remain totally unaccounted for.”
Agents are accused of chasing one worker who fell 30 feet from the top of a building. He was hospitalized and placed on life support, before dying from his injuries on Friday, according to the union.
The raids — which sparked an intense standoff between heavily armed federal officers and dozens of protesters — were condemned by California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose office accused Trump’s administration of wielding an anti-immigration agenda that has brought “chaos, fear and terror” into communities.
“There’s a real cost to these inhumane immigration actions on hardworking families and communities, including farmworker communities, across America,” his office said in a statement.
Agents arrived on Thursday in military-style vehicles to execute “criminal search warrants” inside facilities operated by Glass House Farms, according to Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
The farms span 5.5 million square feet in California’s Ventura County where it is legal for licensed operators to grow cannabis.
Firefighters were dispatched around 12.15 p.m. to provide medical aid. Five people were hospitalized, and four others were treated at the farm, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
In a statement on social media, Glass House Farms said it “fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary.”
Video showed agents firing tear gas and crowd control munitions into a crowd of protesters near a farm house in Camarillo. Agents were also raiding another farm site roughly 30 miles away.
The FBI issued a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a demonstrator, who appeared to fire a pistol during the melee, according to federal prosecutors.
Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott said agents found 10 undocumented children at the facility, including eight who were unaccompanied.
It is legal in California for minors as young as 12 to work on farms but only in non-hazardous jobs and outside of school hours.
Administration officials shared photos on social media showing masked agents posing with the alleged children they discovered and accused Newsom of failing to stop “child exploitation.”
