This just happening in California and it is yet another tragedy of the over aggressiveness of ICE. The Associated Press reports that “a farmworker, identified as Jaime Alanís, phoned his wife in Mexico and told her about the raid in progress, saying he was hiding with other workers. Alanís fell from his hiding place and suffered broken neck, fractured skull, and a rupture in an artery that pumps blood to the brain, his niece Yesenia—who did not want to give her full name—told the AP.”
“They told us he won’t make it and to say goodbye,” she said.
United Farm Workers (UFW) said Friday that “other workers, including U.S. citizens, remain unaccounted for.”
“Our staff is on the ground supporting families,” UFW said in a statement. “Many workers, including U.S. citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for eight hours or more. U.S. citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones.”
“UFW is also aware of reports of child labor on site,” the union continued. “The UFW demands the immediate facilitation of independent legal representation for the minor workers, to protect them from further harm. Farmworkers are excluded from basic child labor laws.”
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives, and separate families,” UFW added. “There is no city, state, or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately.”
The raids appear to be ramping up, even before ICE receives an historic $46 billion funding infusion via the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump last week. Video footage posted on social media in recent days showed ICE officers and other federal agents arresting people in courthouses, a hospital, and marching through a suburban Utah neighborhood.
Democratic U.S. lawmakers were among those condemning the Trump administration’s crackdown and mourning Alanís’ death.
“A farmworker has died following a federal raid in Southern California. This is a heartbreaking and deeply troubling development,” Congresswoman Norma Torres (D-Calif.) said on social media. “Immigrant communities deserve safety and dignity. I’m calling for a full investigation and accountability.”
“Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said that “ICE is out of control.”
“This is not law enforcement,” she added. “It is state violence.”
This is happening on American soil. Farm workers are criminalized and woe betide if you’re illegal. You can die while hiding for your life. This is not the country we used to be.
There are a lot of MAGAs who will say, “he deserved to die.” All the man was doing was picking crops so he could make money and have the necessaries of life. Demonizing and persecuting migrant labor is not the way to go. This is fascist behavior. ICE is targeting everybody, legal or illegal, and the plain fact is that migrants are needed to work the fields and harvest the crops. But soon they won’t risk coming here to do so when enough stories like this happen.
“All the man was doing was picking crops so he could make money and have the necessaries of life.”
AND doing a job you wouldn’t do for love or money. Now the farm (corporation?) will lose crops and profit; your grocery prices will shoot up and you will have to look around for someone to blame since Jaime Alanís and his coworkers (and children) aren’t there/ or are too afraid and, in trun are suffering even more poverty.