A Mexican farmworker died on Saturday from injuries sustained during a federal immigration raid this week north of Los Angeles, a lawyer for his family said.
The farmworker, Jaime Alanís, fell several stories to the ground from a greenhouse on Thursday, when federal agents raided a state-licensed cannabis farm in the agricultural region of Ventura County, Calif.
Mr. Alanis‘s condition had been the subject of confusion among officials, relatives and the media. On Friday, leaders with the United Farm Workers union said that Mr. Alanís had died on that day, and The New York Times and other media outlets reported that.
On Saturday morning, however, his family said that he was on life support and that it was deciding next steps, and Ventura County Medical Center said in a statement that he was still alive but in critical condition.
On Saturday evening, a lawyer retained by the family through the Mexican consulate said in a text message that Mr. Alanis had died on Saturday afternoon. The lawyer, Jesus Arias, added that the family decided to “disconnect” after tests for brain function yielded “no good results.” Mr. Arias said arrangements were being made to transfer Mr. Alanis’s body to his family in the Mexican state of Michoacán.
Elizabeth Strater, vice president for the United Farm Workers union, said in an interview on Friday that during the chaos of the raid, Mr. Alanís “fell 30 feet or more, and experienced devastating spinal and skull injuries.”
An official who was briefed on the situation said Mr. Alanís was from Michoacán, had been working at the farm for more than a decade and had been trying to flee from agents when he fell. He is in his late 50s.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on Friday that Mr. Alanís had not been in federal custody and denied that the agents involved in the raid were the reason he climbed the greenhouse. “Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet,” she said in a statement. Agents called for help, she added, “to get him care as quickly as possible.”
Andrew Dowd, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department, said that eight people had been transferred to area hospitals in response to 911 calls on Thursday and that four other people had been treated at the scene.
In a statement, Teresa Romero, president of the U.F.W., said that several farmworkers had been critically injured in the enforcement actions, and that others, including U.S. citizens, remained unaccounted for. She said those citizens who were detained “were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones” before being released.
The Trump administration last month began to aggressively target work sites in California, including farms, as it seeks to sharply bolster the number of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. President Trump has said that he wanted to allow some farmworkers to stay in the country legally. However, raids in agricultural areas have persisted.
Federal agents, backed by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles, raided two locations operated by Glass House Farms on Thursday. One was in Camarillo, a Ventura County town about 50 miles outside Los Angeles, and another was in Carpinteria, a town in Santa Barbara County.
News of the raids on Thursday rapidly spread, prompting protesters and community members to rush to the scenes. Clashes broke out between hundreds of protesters and the agents.
During the confrontation in the Camarillo area, one protester was seen on video appearing to fire a pistol at officers. The Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that the protester fired a gun at law enforcement officers and that the F.B.I. was offering $50,000 for information leading to the person’s arrest. The agency said four U.S. citizens were being criminally processed for assaulting or resisting officers and that the protesters had damaged vehicles.
“At least 10 migrant children were rescued from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking,” homeland security officials said in a statement.
Glass House Farms said late Thursday that its greenhouses had been visited by federal authorities with search warrants and that the company had fully complied. It is legal for licensed companies to grow cannabis in California.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Miriam Jordan reports from a grass roots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
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