By Leah Douglas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A California farmworker died on Friday from injuries sustained a day earlier when U.S. immigration agents raided a cannabis operation and arrested hundreds of workers, according to a farmworker advocacy group.
Dozens of migrant-rights activists faced off with federal agents in rural Southern California on Thursday. It was the latest escalation of President Donald Trump‘s campaign for mass deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
The Trump administration has made conflicting statements about whether immigration agents will target the farm labor workforce, about half of which is unauthorized to work in the U.S., according to government estimates.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that approximately 200 people in the country illegally were arrested in the raid, which targeted two locations of the cannabis operation Glass House Farms.
Agents also found 10 migrant minors at the farm, the statement said. The facility is under investigation for child labor violations, said Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott in a post on X.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The scene at the farm on Thursday was chaotic, with federal agents wearing helmets and face masks using tear gas and smoke cannisters on angry protesters, according to photos and videos of the scene.
Several farmworkers were injured and one died on Friday from injuries sustained after a 30-foot fall from a building during the raid, said Elizabeth Strater, national vice president of the United Farm Workers.
U.S. citizens were detained during the raid and some are still unaccounted for, Strater said.
Some citizen workers who were detained reported only being released from custody after deleting photos and videos of the raid from their phones, said UFW President Teresa Romero in a statement.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” Romero said.
The DHS did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the group’s statements.
Farm groups have warned that mass deportation of farmworkers would cripple the country’s food supply chain.
In her most recent comments, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be “no amnesty” for farmworkers from deportation. Trump, though, has said migrant workers should be permitted to stay on farms.
(Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)
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