Multiple immigration sweeps reported across Los Angeles, with a tense standoff/protest downtown; SEIU union leader arrested

Los Angeles-adjacent, but

Federal agents clash with protesters during ICE raid at Southern California farm​

The incident occurred outside of an agricultural farm along Laguna Road in the Camarillo area of Ventura County.

ABC News' Los Angeles station observed several clashes between onlookers, or protesters, and at least one person was detained.

essentialsaltes said:

Los Angeles-adjacent, but

Federal agents clash with protesters during ICE raid at Southern California farm​

The incident occurred outside of an agricultural farm along Laguna Road in the Camarillo area of Ventura County.

Click to expand...

Local news seemed to show a dozen or more people handcuffed, probably detained at the farm site. The farm was a marijuana grow as was the other raid further north.

The agitator side of things went a bit more feral as the feds headed out. Rocks thrown breaking windows, and cars briefly used to impede traffic.

--

One protestor apparently had a handgun, captured by ABC pointing it toward feds. Lots of allegedly in the article, but it certainly wasn't friendly.

FBI offers $50,000 reward for info on person who 'appeared to fire a gun at law enforcement' during California ICE clashes​

essentialsaltes said:

Local news seemed to show a dozen or more people handcuffed, probably detained at the farm site. The farm was a marijuana grow as was the other raid further north.

The agitator side of things went a bit more feral as the feds headed out. Rocks thrown breaking windows, and cars briefly used to impede traffic.

Click to expand...

There were vocal protesters hurling insults and sometimes water bottles at federal agents, and there were anxious friends and family of those who work at Glass House, a huge cannabis operation. Then there were curious bystanders like Mike Elliott, a Camarillo resident who voted for President Trump and stopped to see what was happening, saying he wanted to bear witness.

“I voted for Trump because he said he was going to go after the bad guys, and I know they’re there, but I don’t like what they’re doing now .... going after people at Home Depot or farmworkers in the fields.

“These are hardworking people — my gardener and his crew started working for my parents 20 years ago and now they work for me, and they’re illegal; they’re not bad people, they’re like family, and a lot of us depend on the work they do.

Also on hand was Oxnard native Christina Muñoz, who said she brought her 2-year-old son, 5-month old daughter and her mom in hopes of getting a glimpse of her husband, a member of the National Guard whom she hadn’t seen in 30 days.

“We thought it would be for just a few days,” she said, “but we didn’t see him for Father’s Day or the Fourth of July. We had no idea it would last this long.”

[That reminds me of another scene on the local news. Protestors were shaking hands with the fire and ambulance folks who were showing up to deal with medical issues, but the national guard (and ICE, etc.) were getting abuse.]

Protesters said that some people among the crowd had been detained. Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested, according to activist Angelmarie Taylor, who said she was one of his students and had accompanied him to the protest.

Taylor claimed Caravello was arrested as he tried to help a man in a wheelchair when agents were pushing the crowd to move back.

She said he and another individual “were piled on by multiple agents all at once” before being taken behind a line of agents to where several vehicles stood, “and we have no idea now where they are.”

“There are no narcos here,” [brother of a facility worker] said, “no one is armed here and they come fully armed, full of military personnel.”

Marc Cohodes, an investor and famed short-seller who has invested in Glass House, called the raid “beyond outrageous.” He added that Glass House is “the largest cannabis cultivator in the world” and “a highly regulated business fully licensed by the state of California. It’s run by a guy named Kyle Kazan, who is an ex-cop who plays by the rules and does things by the book.” Kazan, he added, is also a supporter of Trump.

Glass House Farms posted a statement on X on Thursday saying that the company had been “visited today by ICE officials” and “fully complied with agent search warrants.” The statement said nothing else, except to add that the company would “provide further updates if necessary.”

Federal judge signals a halt to indiscriminate immigration stops​

The ruling was not made public, but a final order is expected Friday on the case that has become a centerpiece in the battle over Trump’s mass deportation plan. The lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups last week seeks to block federal agents from stopping and arresting brown-skinned people without probable cause and then placing them in “dungeon-like” conditions without access to lawyers.

Ahead of an hours-long hearing in a downtown Los Angeles federal courthouse , Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong provided attorneys with a lengthy ruling based on earlier court filings in the case. Tentative rulings are not uncommon, and Frimpong said she was providing it to give both sides, “an understanding of how I see the case.”

The ruling suggested Frimpong would grant two temporary restraining orders, one encompassing stops and arrests and the other to ensure detainees had access to legal counsel.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Public Counsel, other groups and private attorneys brought the suit on behalf of several immigrant rights groups, three immigrants picked up at a bus stop and two U.S. citizens, one whom was held despite showing agents his identification.

[ACLU lawyer] Tajsar added that it was because of the government’s “misunderstanding of the law” that they’d made so many stop of U.S. citizens, including Brian Gavidia, a named plaintiff who was detained by Border Patrol agents outside of a tow yard in Montebello.

[The judge] pressed [gov lawyer] Skedzielewski on how agents were making arrests, after he argued that “these are sophisticated operations” and seemed to say that arrests stemmed from particular people who were being targeted.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything like that here, which makes it difficult for the court to accept your description of what is happening, because there is no proof that that is what is happening as opposed to what the plaintiffs are saying is happening,” Frimpong said.

Children Left Alone After Mothers Arrested in Immigration Raids​

"I Just Hope I Get My Mom Back," Says 15-Year-Old Juan Martinez, Who Is Now Caring for His Brothers, Ages 8 and 9

Thursday morning, 15-year-old Juan Martinez received a frantic call from his mother. She told him Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were right outside the Glass House Farms complex where she worked and would enter at any moment. “She was rushed,” said Martinez. “She was panicking.”

Martinez didn’t know what to do. “It was really, really stressful,” he said. “I couldn’t drive over there. I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless.”

The next communication from Martinez’s mother came at 11:36 a.m., close to the end of her regular 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift. In a hushed voice text she said she was in custody in a van and being taken to Los Angeles. She told him to take care of his brothers. “That made me cry,” Martinez said.

Martinez’s mother was among more than two dozen Glass House Farms employees arrested during Thursday’s ICE raidon the cannabis company’s properties in Carpinteria and Camarillo.

In the past, [kid's lawyer] Anaya said, ICE agents would use discretion when determining who to arrest during their enforcement operations. Parents or guardians of young children would often not be detained and instead receive a summons to appear in court. Now, Anaya said, anyone and everyone is being captured in the dragnets.

Alexa’s mother is also a Glass House employee and undocumented resident who was similarly swept up in Thursday’s raid. That left Alexa, 16, to care for her 6-year-old and 10-month-old sisters by herself. “They became my responsibility,” she said.

Bradskii said:

Another person from the press injured by a rubber bullet. This one more seriously. Not life threatening, but these things can kill.

'A British news photographer has undergone emergency surgery after being hit by a non-lethal bullet while documenting the stand-off between police and protesters in the US city of Los Angeles.' British photographer injured by 'plastic bullet' during LA protests

Click to expand...

Federal judge orders LAPD to stop shooting journalists with rubber bullets at protests​

In a ruling made public Friday, U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera said a coalition of press rights organizations successfully argued that a court injunction was necessary to protect journalists and others exercising their 1st Amendment rights.

The Los Angeles Press Club and investigative reporting network Status Coup filed suit last month to “force the LAPD to respect the constitutional and statutory rights of journalists engaged in reporting on these protests and inevitable protests to come.” The lawsuit challenged the “continuing abuse” by police of members of the media covering the demonstrations.

The lawsuit accuses the LAPD of flouting state laws passed in the wake of the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, when journalists were detained and injured by the LAPD while covering the unrest.

ICE raids are leaving some L.A. cats and dogs homeless​

Federal immigration agents raided a Home Depot in Barstow last month and arrested a man who had his 3-year-old pit bull, Chuco, with him. A friend managed to grab Chuco from the scene and bring him back to the garage where he lives. The dog’s owner was deported to Mexico the next day. [Chuco was then put in a shelter.]

After repeated attempts, SPAY(CE) co-founder Esther Ruurda said her nonprofit gave up on finding ... a home for him, since “no one has space for an adult male Pittie these days.” So “the poor dog is left to die in the shelter.”

Pets belonging to people who are deported or flee are being left in empty apartments, dumped into the laps of unprepared friends and dropped off at overcrowded shelters, The Times found.

Data show that two county shelters have seen large jumps in dogs being surrendered by their owners.

The numbers of dogs relinquished at L.A. County’s Palmdale shelter more than doubled in June compared with June of last year, according to data obtained by The Times. At the county’s Downey shelter, the count jumped by roughly 50% over the same period.

L.A. Animal Services reported “critical overcrowding” in May, with more than 900 dogs in its custody. [This is due to other factors as well, such as morons getting pets during COVID and then getting rid of them, and rising vet prices and general cost of living.]

SoCal surgery center staff confront ICE agents detaining landscapers on the property​

Masked immigration agents got into a confrontation with staff members of a medical facility in San Bernardino County this week after landscapers ran into their facility looking to avoid being taken into custody.

According to video obtained by KTLA-TV, staffers at the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center on Tuesday told two agents to leave because they didn’t have a warrant to go onto the property

“You guys need a warrant to come in here,” one of the staffers is heard saying to the agents.

In the video, [landscaper] Guillen-Solis is shown holding onto the doorway at the surgical center and asking the agents to present identification. The agents then pulled Guillen-Solis from the doorway and detained him.

[DHS spox Tricia McLaughlin said the landscaper] "ended up near the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center where hospital staff assaulted law enforcement and drug [sic?] the officer and illegal alien into the facility. Then, the staff attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door, blocking law enforcement vehicles from moving, and even called the cops claiming there was a ‘kidnapping.’ ”