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Federal judge sides w/UFW on ICE racial profiling a day after brutal raids take place in Ventura Co. [1]
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Date: 2025-07-15
We can’t put in words how chaotic it’s been since last Thursday. On Thursday July 10th, while key staff and worker leaders were in federal court in Los Angeles fighting to stop roving patrols from terrorizing people just for being brown and working hard, we heard about a huge immigration enforcement action occurring in Ventura County. We got word about it right before folks in the courtroom were ordered to turn off their phones. They managed to get this information to the attorneys who were able to use it in their court arguments.
The raids were horrendous. We know hundreds of workers were terrorized and detained. The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured during chaotic raids in Ventura County, California. Others, including US citizens, were unaccounted for. And sadly one worker, Jaime Alanis, died on Saturday evening from injuries he sustained during this brutal raid.
U.S. citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones. Others were swept up by immigration authorities. George Retes, an American citizen and disabled U.S. Army veteran was one of these workers. He was held in federal custody from Thursday until Sunday evening when he was finally released without charges. He was wrongfully arrested while driving near the raid. His wife, unsure of where he was, located his abandoned vehicle with the windows smashed and a smell of chemical agent inside.
Workers tell us the terrifying stories of overhearing the agents’ brutal attacks on their co-workers, including vicious beatings and rubber bullets. You can watch a video here. It’s difficult to watch. However, the horrifying testimonial about the violence that took place helps explain why workers of all legal status were so terrorized.
As of now, when we are writing, there are still people missing and we are helping their family members search for them.
On Friday evening we got word the judge in the federal case we were telling you about sided with the UFW and our partners and issued two temporary restraining orders. They told the Trump administration to halt the indiscriminate immigration stops in CA’s Central District–including Los Angeles and Ventura Counties–over racial profiling concerns.
We’ve already won a similar TRO in CA’s Eastern District (Bakersfield to the Oregon border). The court ruling found that the federal government’s ongoing immigration raids in Southern California and its denial of access to counsel for arrested immigrants likely violated the Constitution.
Friday’s first TRO bars immigration agents from stopping individuals without reasonable suspicion and from relying on four factors, including:
Apparent race or ethnicity;
Speaking Spanish or English with an accent;
Presence in a particular location like an agricultural site;
The work the person does.
The second TRO orders DHS to provide access to counsel on weekdays, weekends, and holidays for people who are detained in the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.
Farm workers rise before dawn to feed this country—there is no labor more dignified. No one should be targeted, profiled, or terrorized for being brown and working hard. These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families.
The UFW will keep fighting for protections for the men and women who labor so hard to feed us.
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