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An immigration raid in Camarillo, California, on Thursday led to an hourslong standoff between protesters and federal border agents, who blocked the roads with military-style vehicles and tear-gassed community members, including children, as crowds attempted to protect dozens of farmworkers from arrest.
The Department of Homeland Security said over 300 immigrants were detained in dual raids on cannabis farms and agricultural fields in Camarillo and the coastal city of Carpinteria. One farmworker fell from the roof of a greenhouse during the immigration raid and later died of his injuries. Jaime Alanís, 57, had worked at the farm in Camarillo for 10 years and provided for his wife and daughter who live in Mexico. Alanís is the first known person to die during an immigration raid since President Trump returned to office.
"It was almost unlike anything that we had ever seen before," says Angelmarie Taylor, a
student and volunteer with 805 Immigrant Coalition who was present during the raid in Camarillo.
"We're talking about human beings. We're talking about parents, just like the gentleman that passed because of the chaotic actions of ICE," says Luis McArthur, mayor of nearby Oxnard.
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(First column, 13th story, link)
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"The most important thing that we have to do right now is hold the Republicans that voted for this bill accountable for the devastation that they are causing and the lives that will be impacted." Democratic Congressmember Yassamin Ansari of Arizona explains how Trump's new federal budget, which introduces major cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, housing and education, will worsen wealth inequality and the health disparities, while actually increasing the U.S. deficit by trillions of dollars and supercharging spending for immigration and border enforcement. The congressmember shares her recent experience visiting a detention center outside of Phoenix, calling some of the conditions there the most "dehumanizing" she has ever seen. Ansari, the first Iranian American Democrat to serve as a member of Congress, also condemns the Trump administration's strikes on Iran in June. "I do not believe that the president of the United States should be conducting unilateral military action without authorization from Congress," she says.
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