SAN FRANCISCO — A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known person to die during one of the Trump administration's ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis' niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.
Duran posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family's only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.
The United Farm Workers reported Alanis' death prematurely late Friday. The Ventura County Medical Center later issued a statement authorized by the family saying he was still on life support.
''These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,'' the UFW said recently in a statement on the social platform X. The union does not represent workers at the raided farm.
The Department of Homeland Security said it executed criminal search warrants Thursday at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria. Glass House is a licensed cannabis grower. The farm in Camarillo also grows tomatoes and cucumbers.
Garcia called family to say he was hiding and possibly was fleeing agents before he fell about 30 feet (9 meters) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, DHS said in a statement. Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
