New Attack in California, 100 Migrants Kidnapped

This article appeared in the July 11, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier leftist daily newspaper.

Los Angeles. Federal agents raided state-licensed marijuana growers in an agricultural region on the Southern California coast yesterday, sparking clashes between authorities and human rights groups, resulting in at least 100 arrests. Hours earlier, a judge blocked nationwide enforcement of President Donald Trump’s decree to end birthright citizenship in the United States.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, accompanied by National Guard troops in military vehicles, arrived at two farms operated by Glass House Farms, one in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County, 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and another in Camarillo, Ventura County, 50 miles away.

A local television station reported that around 100 farmworkers were arrested in the raid prior to the protests, and that officers fired tear gas at the crowd during a subsequent clash with federal agents.

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According to videos shared on social media, a dozen officers used non-lethal ammunition against protesters who opposed the arrests, the Los Angeles Times reported. The city’s Fire Department transported four people to area hospitals, while three others were treated at the scene.

A member of the volunteer organization 805 Immigration Coalition told the newspaper that approximately 500 people gathered near the farms with Mexican flags and shouted anti-ICE slogans over loudspeakers. She added that they have reports of U.S. citizens being detained.

In Carpinteria, California Democratic Representative Salud Carbajal was denied access to the raid site. One of the two city council members who were also present fell and injured his arm in an altercation between protesters and officers, The Independent reported.

In turn, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) reported that it activated an attention protocol, as well as other actions to provide assistance and consular protection to Mexicans who are affected. The agency made the following emergency consular protection lines available to its countrymen: 1 (805) 627 3520 and 1 (520) 623 7874.

Meanwhile, the first migrants held at the newly opened Alcatraz Alligator Detention Center in Florida reported that authorities are treating them like dogs, feeding them food full of worms and giant bugs, without water or medicine, France 24 reported.

The migrants feel like rats in an experiment, given one meal a day and in conditions that almost resemble torture, according to the detainees’ families.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire Magistrate Judge Joseph LaPlante issued a preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s order denying citizenship to those born to parents living in the United States illegally or temporarily, after certifying a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of a pregnant woman, two parents, and their babies.

The judge’s decision included all children who could be affected. The ruling also included a seven-day suspension to allow for an appeal.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Khalil, one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian protests on American university campuses, sued the government for $20 million for his illegal arrest and detention by immigration agents.