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Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Farmer worker dead, hundreds arrested in U.S. farm raid
A California farm worker died on Friday after U.S. immigration agents raided a cannabis nursery and arrested hundreds of workers, a worker advocacy group said, while a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt some of its most aggressive tactics in rounding up undocumented immigrants. Dozens of migrant-rights activists faced off with federal agents in rural Southern California on Thursday during the operation, the latest escalation of President Donald Trump's campaign for mass deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. A California judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from racially profiling immigrants as it seeks deportation targets and from denying immigrants' right to access to lawyers during their detention. The Trump administration has made conflicting statements about whether immigration agents will target the farm labor workforce, about half of which is unauthorized to work in the U.S., according to government estimates. The Department of Homeland Security said approximately 200 people in the country illegally were arrested in the raid, which targeted two locations of the cannabis operation Glass House Farms. Agents also found 10 migrant minors at the farm, the department said in an emailed statement. The facility is under investigation for child labor violations, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott posted on X. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The scene at the farm on Thursday was chaotic, with federal agents in helmets and face masks using tear gas and smoke canisters on angry protesters, according to photos and videos of the scene. Several farm workers were injured and one died on Friday from injuries sustained after a 30-foot (9-meter) fall from a building during the raid, said Elizabeth Strater, national vice president of the United Farm Workers. The worker who died was identified as Jaime Alanis on a verified GoFundMe page created by his family, who said they were raising money to help his family and for his burial in Mexico. 'He was his family's provider. They took one of our family members. We need justice,' Alanis' family wrote on the GoFundMe page. U.S. citizens were detained during the raid and some are still unaccounted for, Strater said. DHS said its agents were not responsible for the man's death, saying that 'although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet.' Agents immediately called for a medical evacuation, DHS said. The melee in southern California came as the Trump administration faces dozens of lawsuits across the country over its controversial tactics in tracking down undocumented immigrants for deportation. U.S. District Court Judge Maame Frimpong granted two temporary restraining orders blocking the administration from detaining immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally based on racial profiling and from denying detained people the right to speak with a lawyer. The ruling, made in response to a lawsuit from immigration advocacy groups, says the administration is violating the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution by conducting 'roving patrols' to sweep up suspected undocumented immigrants based on their being Latinos, and then denying them access to lawyers. 'What the federal government would have this Court believe -in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case - is that none of this is actually happening,' Frimpong wrote in her ruling. California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides legal services and other support to farm workers, is working on picking up checks for detained Glass House workers, said directing attorney Angelica Preciado. Some Glass House workers detained during the raid were only able to call family members after they signed voluntary deportation orders, and were told they could be jailed for life because they worked at a cannabis facility, Preciado said. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin rejected those allegations, saying in an emailed statement that 'allegations that ICE or CBP agents denied detainees from calling legal assistance are unequivocally false.' Some citizen workers who were detained reported only being released from custody after deleting photos and videos of the raid from their phones, UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement. 'These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,' Romero said. Farm groups have warned that mass deportation of farm workers would cripple the country's food supply chain. In her most recent comments, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be 'no amnesty' for farm workers from deportation. Trump, though, has said migrant workers should be permitted to stay on farms.
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Air quality expert discusses impact of wildfires, smoke duration, and long-term preparedness
Watch Air quality expert Jeffrey Brook discusses wildfire smoke, its impact, how long it may last, and how we can adapt to the new normal.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Alberta's transgender ban in women's sports won't apply to out-of-province athletes
Alberta is rolling out new regulations this fall banning transgender athletes from playing women's sports, but the province will still welcome out-of-province transgender competitors. Tourism and Sport Minister Andrew Boitchenko said the discrepancy is out of his hands. "We don't have authority to regulate athletes from different jurisdictions," he said in an interview. In a followup statement, ministry spokeswoman Vanessa Gomez added it's due to outside sporting organizations being bound by out-of-province or international guidelines. She added the rules allow the government "to do what is best for Albertan athletes, while also showcasing Alberta as a premier destination for national and international sport events." Starting Sept. 1, the province will block transgender athletes from Alberta who are 12 and older from competing in female amateur sports. It's one of a suite of changes surrounding transgender health, education and sport introduced last year by Premier Danielle Smith's United Conservative Party government. The laws sparked polarizing debate. Proponents, including Smith, say it's about fairness on the playing field, so girls are not battling opponents with biological advantages. Detractors say it's about stigmatizing and punishing those in the transgender community. Hannah Pilling, a track athlete who petitioned in favour of restricting transgender people in female sports, has welcomed the new regulations. She said in an interview she hopes Smith's government takes it further. "It's kind of hard to enforce that on other athletes that are coming to compete in Alberta, but it's definitely still not completely fair," Pilling said. She added that she would like to see future rules apply to men's divisions. Skiier says she'd move if she could Transgender athlete Allison Hadley said the exemption for out-of-province athletes suggests the legislation is not really about fairness or safety. "If I had the resources to [move], honestly, I probably wouldn't be in Alberta now," she said. "We're here in a province that doesn't want us to be in the public or exist in many ways." Hadley said she didn't pick up cross-country skiing to win medals. She said she was in it for the health benefits, the motivation that competition brings to her training and the camaraderie on the trail. "It really sucks to have that taken away," she said. Mark Kosak, head of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, said a restriction preventing transgender athletes from coming to Alberta to compete might have stopped the organization from ever hosting a national championship again. "So there's some relief from us," Kosak said. He said the conference hosts more than 1,000 events a year and, of those, between 40 and 50 host out-of-province competitors. He said he's unaware of any transgender athletes competing in the conference. Kosak added that the sporting community didn't ask for the government's new rules. "This is not a priority. This is not a concern," he said. "It's not an issue." The rules will be enforced through a complaint-driven process. Female athletes subject to complaints need to prove their sex registration at birth. For those who were born elsewhere but live in Alberta and can't retrieve documents that clearly state their sex at birth, Boitchenko said the government will look at "alternative documents." "We'll be looking at [it] case by case, making sure that nobody feels that they can't compete just because they lost certain documents," he said. Possible sanctions could be written warnings or code of conduct violations. Bennett Jensen, legal director at LGBTQ+ advocacy group Egale, said the validation process alone is a "gross violation of the privacy of all women and girls." He said the government is introducing a complaint-based "snitch line" for complaints that will spur even more public policing of women's bodies and gender presentation among young girls — whether they're transgender or not. He said a 12-year-old, at a vulnerable stage of her life, could be subject to scrutiny and humiliation based on her physical appearance. Jensen also said the government's biological advantage argument falls apart in many instances, including for those athletes receiving hormone replacement therapy. Boitchenko said inclusion is the goal, and the government is planning to expand grants to encourage sporting organizations to create coed divisions where numbers allow. Pilling's father, Dave Pilling, said he sits on the board for the Southern Alberta Summer Games, where they introduced open categories in all sports this year.
