Los Angeles
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After weeks of chaotic immigration raids at workplaces and public places across Southern California, a judge has granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit, requiring federal authorities to find “reasonable suspicion” to make immigration arrests in California’s central district, including Los Angeles, and preventing them from using characteristics like race or speaking Spanish as the sole basis for arrests.
The federal judge found the Department of Homeland Security has been making arrests in Los Angeles immigration raids without probable cause. The ruling comes after federal immigration agents arrested approximately 200 migrants in a pair of chaotic raids at legal marijuana farms on Thursday, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Conflicting accounts from workers and federal officials have raised a flurry of questions as DHS officials say their agents were shot at and a farmers’ union says a worker has died following the raids.
The developments again thrust a spotlight on a region that emerged weeks ago as an epicenter of large-scale immigration operations by the Trump administration – and of tense protests against the actions that often yielded arrests of their own.
Demonstrations were planned again Friday in Los Angeles, as labor and faith leaders and immigrant rights advocates push back against deportation operations heralded by the Republican White House. The mayor also signed an order aimed at protecting immigrant communities.
Here’s what we know about the key events of this week:
Feds and protesters clash at farms
Intense standoffs unfolded Thursday as protesters clashed with federal immigration agents carrying out raids at legal marijuana farms in California’s Ventura and Santa Barbara counties – operations like those at construction sites, hotels and Home Depot parking lots that have stirred widespread fear among immigrant communities.
Approximately 200 “illegal aliens” were detained during both raids in the cities of Carpinteria and Camarillo, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday. The department said it was executing criminal warrants.
During the raids, the DHS said at least 10 migrant children were “rescued from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking.” The agency did not provide details on the particular facility or the conditions in which the children were found.
The operator of the marijuana farms, Glass House Brands, said in a statement Friday it has “never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors.” CNN has reached out to Glass House for further comment on the DHS allegations.
Federal agents at both facilities were met by an estimated 500 protesters, according to the DHS. During one of the raids, a person fired a gun at officers, the agency said. The suspect has not been apprehended.
President Donald Trump encouraged ICE and Homeland Security officials in a social media post Friday, to arrest protestors who throw rocks and bricks at officers or commit “any other form of assault” against officers, “using whatever means is necessary to do so.”
The United Farm Workers Union said multiple farmworkers were “critically injured” during the Camarillo raid, and others are “totally unaccounted for.” Fire department spokesman Andrew Dowd said eight injured people were taken to local hospitals and an additional four patients were treated at the scene.
The United Farm Workers union said earlier Friday one farmworker died after being critically injured during the raid. Later, a spokesperson for Ventura County said the farmworker was hospitalized and is still in critical condition.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the worker “was not and has not been in CPB or ICE custody.”
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medevac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible,” McLaughlin said.
CNN has attempted to reach the worker’s family for more information.
During the Camarillo raid, vehicles from Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection blocked a road lined with fields and greenhouses as military-style vehicles and a helicopter flew overhead, The Associated Press reported. Camarillo is located just over 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, about halfway between Santa Barbara and the city.
Dozens of demonstrators gathered on the road as uniformed agents in camouflage gear, helmets and gas masks stood in a line across from them, then threw canisters that sprayed what looked like smoke into the air to disperse the crowd, according to video of the encounter and AP.
About 35 miles up the coast, a raid around the same time Thursday at a Carpinteria marijuana farm also grew tense, with smoke bombs erupting as “a crowd of outraged residents and workers confronted federal agents, some clad in military-style gear,” CNN affiliate KEYT reported.
“It was overkill,” said Congressman Salud Carbajal, a Democrat who represents the area, went to the scene of “over 50 ICE agents … conducting this operation.”
“They were creating fear, anxiety and intimidation,” Carbajal said in a video on X. “They were dressed in military garb, clothing, military grade weapons. They were just creating an untenable, incendiary circumstance where they could have got members of the public and themselves hurt.”
A young child was hurt by shrapnel from the agents’ flash and smoke devices, he said as he held a piece of metal, adding he could not enter the farm facility.
The Camarillo incident concerned the mayor of nearby Oxnard: “It is becoming increasingly apparent that the actions taken by ICE are bold and aggressive, demonstrating insensitivity towards the direct impact on our community,” Mayor Luis McArthur wrote on Facebook, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“These actions are causing unnecessary distress and harm. I remain committed to working alongside our Attorney General and the Governor’s office to explore potential legal avenues to address these activities.”
As to the confrontation between federal agents and anti-ICE protesters, White House border czar Tom Homan said: “You have the right to protest. I support that. But when you cross the line on impeding us, you’re going to be arrested.”
The farm raids happened just days after dozens of federal immigration agents, along with members of the California National Guard, deployed to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood known for its large immigrant population, also sparking a protest – and the mayor’s scorn.
Word had spread of a possible raid before more than 90 troops and officers descended Monday on MacArthur Park, where Mayor Karen Bass watched officers on horseback and soldiers in tactical gear walk past a playground as children at a summer day camp were rushed indoors so they would not be traumatized, she told AP.
Activists arrived to drive out the agents, yelling and banging on ICE vehicles. Troops and officers left after about an hour, AP reported.
It’s not clear if anyone was taken into custody during the operation. ICE does not comment on ongoing operations, its spokesperson told CNN.
“Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks,” Bass, a Democrat, said later. “There was no protest. There was no disorder that required that.”
Bass signed an executive directive Friday morning to support Los Angeles’ immigrant communities. It came in the wake of “unlawful raids conducted by the federal government,” her office announced, mentioning the one at MacArthur Park.
Trump maintains control of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines he ordered deployed in early June against the wishes of the state’s governor to respond to protests in a 1-square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles against broad immigration raids.
The judge’s Friday ruling came as part of a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration raids and conditions in federal detention centers.
The defendants, including the DHS, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, are “enjoined from conducting detentive stops in this District unless the agent or officer has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law,” according to the judge’s ruling. Federal immigration authorities cannot make immigration arrests in California’s central district solely based on “apparent race or ethnicity,” “speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent,” “presence at a particular location,” or “the type of work one does.”
The ruling also requires immigration authorities to provide detainees at a Los Angeles immigration facility with access to legal visitation and phone calls with lawyers.
The suit, filed last week by the ACLU of Southern California on behalf of five people and immigration advocacy groups, alleges the agency overseeing ICE, “has unconstitutionally arrested and detained people in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration,” the ACLU said in a statement.
The plaintiffs allege the Trump administration is unconstitutionally arresting and detaining people in Southern California based on race and conducting mass immigration sweeps without first establishing reasonable suspicion a person is unlawfully in the United States.
US District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong heard arguments Thursday on whether to grant emergency restraining orders in the case, with the government asserting federal agents initiate stops based on intelligence or “trend analysis,” not race or ethnicity.
Frimpong, a nominee of President Joe Biden, appeared skeptical, repeatedly pressing the government for evidence the arrests were based on actionable intelligence rather than targeting areas where undocumented immigrants are presumed to gather.
“It’s hard for the court to believe you couldn’t find one case with a report of why someone was targeted,” she said.
LA Mayor stands behind migrant community
Los Angeles Mayor Bass, who has fiercely opposed recent federal immigration operations, took steps Friday to strengthen the city’s response to the raids.
In her Friday directive, Bass instructed city departments to prepare plans for how city employees should respond if federal agents try to detain migrants on city property, which could include many schools.
“We’re not trying to train people or to train city departments on how to resist and break the law,” Bass said. She noted city workers would only provide entry to agents with appropriate arrest warrants. “This is for city departments, city employees to understand what their rights are, meaning that you can’t just allow people to come in and run roughshod.”
A task force will also be formed between Los Angeles Police Department and community members to discuss how to support impacted residents, Bass announced.
“The family members that are left behind don’t know whether their family members are in the city, in the state, or even in the country,” Bass said. “We also know that when these raids have been happening, it’s not just (impacting) people who are undocumented.”
The city has submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act for records regarding the dates and locations of federal immigration operations, which have so far largely been unannounced.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated where the immigration raid referenced by the Oxnard mayor took place. It was in Camarillo.
