Tag Archives: Department of Homeland Security

Salon: “Cried every night”: ICE detains child with leukemia

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As part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, a young cancer patient and his family were detained, despite adhering to every rule of the immigration process. The boy’s lawyer says the family’s experience puts to lie the Trump administration’s claims about deportation.

In May, a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who had been suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia since the age of three was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside his family, immediately after a court hearing on May 29. Their case was dismissed at the hearing, per instructions from Trump, who directed judges to dismiss the cases of immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years so that ICE can move to deport them. On July 2, the family was released after significant pressure from the public and media coverage of the detention.

Elora Mukherjee, an attorney who represented the boy and his family, told Salon that the boy and his 9-year-old sister “cried every night in detention.” At the same time, the government pursued an expedited removal, a process by which the government deports someone without a hearing before a judge.

“The Trump administration’s policy of detaining people at courthouses who are doing everything right, who are entirely law-abiding, who are trying to fulfill all the requirements that the US government asks of them — it violates our Constitution, it violates our federal laws. It also violates our sense of morality. Why are we targeting hundreds, if not thousands, of people, including children, who are doing everything right?” Mukherjee said.

Jeff Migliozzi, the communications director for Freedom for Immigrants, an immigrant advocacy organziation, told Salon that “The Trump administration’s aggressive quota of 3,000 daily immigration arrests — a policy pushed by hardliners in the White House like known white nationalist Stephen Miller — is terrorizing communities.”

“The administration is directing resources and personnel from every possible corner of the government to conduct a multi-agency detention and deportation campaign at unprecedented scale,” Migliozzi said.. “This destructive agenda touches every corner of American life and civil society, as more and more people, including those who have been in the US for decades and are pillars of their community, are suddenly snatched by masked agents and taken away to remote detention sites. Street operations are resource-intensive, so the administration has increasingly turned to bait-and-switch tactics to drive up the numbers. ICE is now relying more on arrests at scheduled check-ins and at courthouses. These practices underscore not only the cruelty of this administration’s policy, but of the outdated and unfair immigration system. Here you have people doing everything they can to follow the instructions given to them, and then the rug is pulled out from under them. The result is separated families and shattered lives.”

Despite living in Los Angeles, the family was kept at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas for over a month. The center had been closed under the Biden Administration, but has been reopened as part of Trump’s push to deport as many immigrants as possible.

In detention, Mukherjee said that the boy suffered from easy bruising and bone pain, both symptoms of leukemia, and missed a June 5 medical appointment related to his cancer treatment. His sister barely ate in detention, she added.

In response to a request for comment from Salon, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, “ICE does not consider a six-year-old child a ‘flight risk’ or a ‘criminal’—that is a disgusting accusation and devoid of any reality. ”

McLaughlin claimed that the family entered the United States illegally and that “Any implications that ICE would deny a child proper medical care are FALSE,” adding that “ICE ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and well-being of all detainees in its care.”

Bullshit!!! It’s all about cruelty and terror!

“On May 29, 2025, an immigration judge in California dismissed the family’s immigration case and they were served orders of expedited removal,” McLaughlin said. “ICE took custody of the family following the judge’s decision and pending further proceedings. The child arrived at the Dilley facility on May 30, 2025, and was seen by a nurse during intake. Fortunately, the child has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year and was seen regularly by medical personnel while at the Dilley facility. During this time, the family chose to appeal their case. On July 2, the child, his mother, and his sister were released on parole.”

The Dilley detention facility has been subject to renewed scrutiny as the Trump administration has sought to terminate the Flores Settlement, a 1990s-era policy stemming from the Supreme Court case Reno v. Flores, which set basic standards for the treatment of children in detention and required the government to release children from detention without unnecessary delay.

Recent testimony about conditions at ICE facilities has raised concerns over violations of the agreement, with one girl describing situations in which adults and children were fighting over an insufficient amount of water at one facility.

“We don’t get enough water. They put out a little case of water, and everyone has to run for it,” the girl said in testimony related to conditions in immigrant detention. “An adult here even pushed my little sister out of the way to get to the water first.”

Mukherjee said that the family had followed all the rules in coming to the United States, but were still arrested by ICE. And, despite claims from the Trump administration that they’re focusing their efforts on criminals, neither the small children nor the mother had been accused of a crime. The family arrived in the United States in October, applying for asylum after they faced death threats in Honduras. The names and details of the family have not been released due to the threats they face in Honduras.

“So this particular family did everything right. They came to the U.S. border after fleeing imminent and menacing death threats in their home country of Honduras. They didn’t cross the border illegally. They waited for permission to enter the United States using a CBP one appointment. At that point, DHS paroled the family into the United States, which necessarily entailed a determination that the family did not pose a danger to the community or a flight risk,” Mukherjee said. “The family did exactly what the federal government asked them to do.”

According to Mukherjee, as soon as the family stepped out of their May 29 hearing, plain clothes ICE officers detained them, a move that she said “clearly violates both the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment.”

“When Trump was campaigning for president, and since he’s become president, and high-level officials in the Department of Homeland Security constantly say that we are targeting the ‘worst of the worst,’” Mukherjee said. “These are the people who are doing everything right.”

Their release followed a suit filed by the mother of the family, demanding the family’s immediate release. Mukherjee told Salon that the family intends to continue its legal battle to remain in the United States.

“Cried every night”: ICE detains child with leukemia – Salon.com
The Trump administration is going after easy targets, including sick children, to meet its deportation quotas

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/14/cried-every-night-ice-traumatizes-a-child-with-leukemia

CNN: Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages

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Deep in the hazardous and ecologically fragile Everglades, hundreds of migrants are confined in cages in a makeshift tent detention facility Florida’s Republican governor calls “safe and secure” and Democratic lawmakers call “inhumane.”

Two days after filing a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being “unlawfully denied entry” to inspect conditions at the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” members of Congress and state representatives were given a limited tour Saturday to inspect conditions after calling the lack of access a “deliberate obstruction meant to hide what’s really happening behind those gates,” according to a joint statement from lawmakers.

They said they heard detainees shouting for help and crying out “libertad”— Spanish for “freedom” — amid sweltering heat, bug infestations and meager meals.

“They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District, said during a news conference following their tour.

The families of some of the detainees have also decried conditions in the facility, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials defend it as offering higher detention standards than many US prisons.

Lawmakers Shown Empty Cells

On the tour, the lawmakers said they were not allowed to visit areas where migrants are currently being detained but instead were shown cells not yet being used.

Wasserman Schultz said each cage contained three small toilets with attached sinks, which detainees use for drinking water and brushing their teeth, sharing the same water used to flush the toilets.

When they toured the kitchen area, Wasserman Schultz said government employees were being offered large pieces of roast chicken and sausages, while the detainees’ lunch consisted of a “gray turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple and chips.”

“I don’t see how that could possibly sustain them nutritionally or not make them hungry,” Wasserman Schultz said. “And when you have hungry people, obviously their mood changes.”

Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who was also on the tour, said the lawmakers were concerned about reports of unhygienic conditions due to toilets not working and “feces being spread everywhere,” but were denied access from viewing units where migrants are currently detained.

They were also not permitted to view the medical facilities, with officials citing HIPAA laws, despite lawmakers being allowed to examine the medical facilities at other detention facilities, he said.

“It is something everyone, whether you’re Democrat, Republican or anything, should be deeply ashamed of,” Frost said. “Immigrants don’t poison the blood of this nation. They are the blood of this nation.”

US Rep. Darren Soto said lawmakers also witnessed evidence of flooding, highlighting serious concerns of what could happen to detainees if there’s severe weather during what forecasters said may be a busy hurricane season.

“What we saw in our inspection today was a political stunt, dangerous and wasteful,” Soto said after the tour. “One can’t help but understand and conclude that this is a total cruel political stunt meant to have a spectacle of political theater and it’s wasting taxpayer dollars and putting our ICE agents, our troops and ICE detainees in jeopardy.”

Detained Migrant’s Family Reports Difficult Conditions, No Access to Lawyer

About 900 people are currently detained at the facility, Wasserman Schultz said during the news conference but it has the capacity to hold 3,000 people, with room for more, according to Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The wife of a 43-year-old Guatemalan man currently detained at “Alligator Alcatraz” told CNN her husband is enduring harsh conditions similar to those described by lawmakers who toured the facility. After more than two weeks in detention, she said, he has yet to see a lawyer.

“There are too many mosquitoes … He’s in a really bad condition. The power goes off at times because they’re using generators,” the woman told CNN in an interview Tuesday.

“The detainees are being held in tents, and it is very hot there. They’re in bad conditions. … There’s not enough food. Sick people are not getting medication. Every time I ask about his situation, he tells me it’s bad,” she said.

The Guatemalan woman said she, her husband, and their 11-month-old baby went fishing on June 25 in the Everglades. A Florida wildlife officer approached them and asked for documents. Her husband had a valid driver’s license, she said, but when the officer realized she didn’t have any documents proving she was in the country legally, the officer called immigration authorities who detained the whole family.

After spending seven-and-a-half hours in what she describes as a “dirty holding cell,” she and her baby – a US citizen – were released, but her husband was detained. She now wears an ankle bracelet.

Her husband later told her he remained in detention at the Dania Beach Jail, near Fort Lauderdale, for eight days, before being transferred to “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Once transferred, he was unable to take a shower for six days and there were not enough facilities for washing hands, she said. On Friday, he was woken up at 3 a.m. to take a shower because of the number of people waiting for their turn, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Florida detention facility, did not immediately reply to CNN’s request for comment about specific allegations about conditions there.

In a written statement posted on X Tuesday, DHS said, “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

“Alligator Alcatraz” Set Up In Just Eight Days

In little over a week, workers transformed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from an 11,000-foot runway into a temporary tent city President Donald Trump toured last week.

Trump raved about the facility’s “incredible” quick construction during his visit and pointed to the detention center as an example of what he wants to implement “in many states.”

The project was fast-tracked under an executive order from DeSantis, who framed illegal immigration as a state emergency.

Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages | CNN
Deep in the hazardous and ecologically fragile Everglades, hundreds of migrants are confined in cages in a makeshift tent detention facility Florida’s Republican governor calls “safe and secure” and Democratic lawmakers call “inhumane.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/12/us/alligator-alcatraz-lawmaker-tour-conditions

Immigrants in overcapacity ICE detention say they’re hungry, raise food quality concerns

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As the Trump administration ramps up immigration arrests, recent detainees and advocacy groups are raising concerns about food in ICE facilities nationwide.

Immigrants being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in at least seven states are complaining of hunger, food shortages and spoiled food, detainees and immigration advocates say. They say some detainees have gotten sick; others say they have lost weight. In one facility, an incident involving detainees reportedly broke out in part because of food.

The food problems come amid overcrowding at ICE facilities tied to the Trump administration’s push to quickly ramp up immigration arrests. While capacity data isn’t publicly available for every ICE detention facility, nationwide figures on the availability of beds show a system beyond its overall capacity. As of mid-June, ICE was detaining nearly 60,000 people, almost 45% above the capacity provided for by Congress.

Although many of ICE’s detention centers are run by private contractors, the problems are happening all over the country regardless of who’s running a given facility, advocates say. A former ICE official told NBC News it is difficult for a facility to stay stocked with the right amount of food when, on any given day, it may face an unexpected surge of new detainees. While the agency can move money around to cover the cost of detaining more immigrants, planning for unexpected daily spikes can be difficult for facilities and could lead to food being served late or in small quantities, the former ICE official said.

On top of that, there are now fewer avenues for detainees to submit concerns while they are in ICE custody, advocates say, pointing to recent job cuts to an independent watchdog within the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency.

“We haven’t seen any company-specific trends,” said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practice and policy counsel with the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It just goes to the overall detention system and how overcrowded the detention system is as a whole.”

Alfredo Parada Calderon, a Salvadoran man who has been detained for almost a year, says he has recently had meals that have left him feeling hungry.

Detainees have sometimes been given flavorless meat that is so finely ground that it is almost liquefied, he told NBC News from the Golden State Annex detention facility in California.

“It looks like little, small pebbles, and that will be the ounces that they give you,” he said, referring to meat portions he has had in meals.

Jennifer Norris, a directing attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center with clients at multiple California detention centers, said it has gotten several complaints from clients in other facilities about the food being “inedible” and in one case “moldy.” The complaints come as some centers reach capacity with recent arrests, she said.

A woman named Rubimar, who asked that she and her husband, Jose, be identified by their first names only because he was deported Wednesday and fears fallout in Venezuela as a result of talking to the media, said Jose was detained by ICE in El Paso, Texas, for about three months and had complained about a lack of food there.

“He tells me many are given two spoonfuls of rice and that many are still hungry,” Rubimar said in an interview before Jose was deported to Venezuela.

Russian immigrant detainee Ilia Chernov said the conditions, including food, have gotten worse since he was detained at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana on July 24, 2024.

“The portions got smaller,” Chernov said through a Russian translator. “I have to deal with hunger, so I am getting used to the hunger. So I have lost weight.”

DHS said Winn Correctional Center has received no complaints from Russian detainees. However, Chernov’s lawyers said he has submitted complaints about food to ICE in writing, at least one as recently as April.

The detainees’ complaints are consistent with what advocates say they are hearing from other detainees and their lawyers across the country.

Liliana Chumpitasi, who runs a hotline for detainees at the immigration advocacy group La Resistencia in Washington state, said she gets 10 to 20 calls a day from ICE detainees complaining about conditions. They have told her that the meals used to be delivered on a regular schedule, such as 6 a.m. for breakfast and noon for lunch, but that now breakfast may not come until 9 a.m. and dinner is often not served until midnight. Some detainees have also said meals are now half the size they were last year, she said.

According to ICE’s food service standards, detainees are required to be served three meals a day, two of which are supposed to be hot, and with “no more than 14 hours between the evening meal and breakfast.”

Congress has funded ICE to detain up to 41,500 people, including facilities, food, staffing and supplies. But as of the week of July 7, ICE had over 57,000 detainees in its facilities across the country, according to ICE data. However, there is an expectation that more space will be added with the passage this month of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which allocates $45 billion for ICE detention centers until the end of September 2029. According to an estimate by the American Immigration Council, that amount could “likely fund an increase in ICE detention to at least 116,000 beds” per year.

Two other former ICE officials said the agency can hold more people than Congress has funded it for but only for short periods. A current senior ICE official, who asked not to be named to freely discuss ongoing funding issues, said the agency has pulled money from other parts of DHS to continue funding detention through Sept. 30.

Asked about specific allegations of food scarcity and substandard food, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told NBC News in a statement, “Any claim that there is lack of food or subprime conditions at ICE detention centers are false.”

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment and have opportunity to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” McLaughlin said. “Meals are certified by dieticians. Ensuring the safety, security and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE.”

‘Improper food handling practices’

In Tacoma, Washington, at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, Chumpitasi fears the increase in people being held there has contributed to poor food safety.

Seven food violations have been found there in 2025 so far, compared with two in 2024 and one in 2023, according to inspection data by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. According to ICE data, 1,081 people were detained there as of June 23, compared with 719 at the end of fiscal year 2024 and 570 at the end of fiscal year 2023. (The federal government’s fiscal year runs through Sept. 30.)

One morning in mid-April, the facility contacted the local Health Department to report 57 cases of suspected foodborne illness, with symptoms including diarrhea, stomachache and bloating, according to the Health Department. After an investigation, the department concluded that reheated collard greens that had been served at the facility had tested positive for Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning. The collard greens were a substitute food for that day and not posted on the day’s menu, according to health department documents. Food poisoning caused by Bacillus cereus is often related to leftover food that has been improperly cooled or reheated.

The Health Department went back to the Northwest Processing Center for an unannounced visit and found “several improper food handling practices.” It worked with the staff there to correct them, and as of June 18 the facility had passed inspection.

Asked about that, McLaughlin said in an email, “While the Health Department was notified, the on-site medical team concluded that there was no evidence linking the illness to a specific food item, as claimed by the detainees.”

‘I am getting used to the hunger’

Over the past month, the American Immigration Lawyers Association has received at least a dozen food-related complaints from advocacy groups and lawyers representing detainees across the country, according to Dojaquez-Torres.

“The common complaint is that there is just not enough food,” she said in an interview. “What I am hearing is that there are extended periods of time when people are not being fed, and when they are, they are being given chips or a slice of bread.”

“We have been getting reports from around the country from our members … and conditions have been declining rapidly,” she said. She also said that some detainees haven’t been given beds and that some have said they aren’t given access to showers.

In early June, a “melee” broke out in Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, because of conditions inside the facility, which included “paltry meals served at irregular hours,” according to The New York Times, which spoke to several lawyers representing detainees inside the facility and family members.

Geo Group pushed back against the Times’ reporting in an emailed statement at the time, saying, “Contrary to current reporting, there has been no widespread unrest at the facility.”

DHS also denied allegations of food issues at the Newark immigration detention facility when NBC News asked about them.

“Allegations that there are chronic food shortages at Delaney Hall are unequivocally false. The facility regularly reviews any detainee complaints. The Food Service Operations Director conducted a review of food portions and detainees are being fed the portions as prescribed by the nutritionist, based on a daily 2400 to 2600 caloric intake,” McLaughlin said.

DHS didn’t respond to a follow-up question about how recently the food service operations director — or any oversight body reviewing food in ICE detention facilities nationwide — had last visited and made an assessment.

In late May, Rubimar said, her husband, Jose, had called and told her that the gas at his facility wasn’t functioning and that they had been given only a bag of tuna to eat in the meantime. But even before that, she said, her husband said the food was “too little.”

McLaughlin said a dietitian had recently approved the meal plan at the El Paso Service Processing Center and indicated “the total caloric intake for ICE detainees at the facility was 3,436 per day — which exceeds the average daily recommended minimums.”

LaSalle Corrections, which operates the Winn Correctional Center, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The GEO Group, which operates the ICE facilities in Newark and Tacoma, as well as the Golden State Annex and many others nationwide, didn’t respond to specific allegations about food service and instead provided this statement: “We are proud of the role our company has played for 40 years to support the law enforcement mission of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Over the last four decades, our innovative support service solutions have helped the federal government implement the policies of seven different Presidential Administrations. In all instances, our support services are monitored by ICE, including on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure strict compliance with ICE detention standards.”

Reduced oversight

Beyond overcrowding, immigration advocates also blame the alleged food issues at detention facilities in part on cutbacks to a team of inspectors inside DHS.

The Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, an office that previously oversaw conditions inside ICE and ICE-contracted facilities, was entirely or mainly shuttered this year after the “majority of the workforce” was issued reduction-in-force notices, according to ongoing litigation regarding the cuts.

“One of the things that made the [Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman] is that we actually had case managers in the facilities and they were accessible to the detainees,” a former DHS employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns about future government employment. “They would actually go into the kitchen [to see] if there were deficiencies and work with kitchen management.”

Karla Gilbride, a lawyer with Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group suing the Trump administration over the firings of people in the office, said the office has been completely dismantled.

“That is our position, that they have shut down the office. They put everyone on leave. They were told to stop interacting with everyone who filed complaints” from detention, Gilbride said.

The former DHS employee said the dismantling of the ombudsman’s office means detainees have fewer options if they have complaints or concerns about things like food, overcrowding, sanitation, access to legal counsel and clean clothes.

“At the end of the day, it really just means that there are less people to sound an alarm,” the former DHS employee said.

McLaughlin didn’t respond to requests for comment about the dismantling of the ombudsman’s office. DHS has maintained in court filings that the ombudsman’s office remains open and that efforts to restaff certain positions affected by the layoffs are underway.

In a status report filed in court in early July, government lawyers said they are onboarding three new employees at the ombudsman’s office and that files have been created for all new complaints since the end of March.

Immigrants in overcapacity ICE detention say they’re hungry, raise food quality concerns
As the Trump administration ramps up immigration arrests, recent detainees and advocacy groups are raising concerns about food in ICE facilities nationwide.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigrants-overcapacity-ice-detention-say-hungry-raise-food-quality-co-rcna214193

The College Fix: Faculty group demands release of Cal State professor ‘kidnapped’ by ICE

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U.S. attorney says he was ‘arrested for throwing a tear gas canister’ at agents

Just returning their trash. The Gestapo ICE thugs shouldn’t have been tear-gassing the protesters in the first place.

A California State University faculty group is demanding the release of a professor it claims was “kidnapped” for no reason by federal agents.

The California Faculty Association, an “anti-racism, social justice union” that has 29,000 members, claimed on Instagram Saturday that “four masked agents” put CSU Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello into an unmarked vehicle “without identifying themselves” or giving a reason for the arrest.

According to KTLA, Caravello (pictured) was part of a Thursday demonstration protesting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at the Glass House Farms marijuana facility.

The university confirmed that Caravello, who teaches philosophy and math, was in federal custody, saying in a statement “At this time, it is our understanding that Professor Caravello was peacefully participating in a protest – an act protected under the First Amendment and a right guaranteed to all Americans.

“If confirmed, we stand with elected officials and community leaders calling for his immediate release.”

But U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X Sunday afternoon that Caravello “was not ‘kidnapped’ by federal agents” but “was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement.”

What goes around, comes around!

Officially, Caravello is charged with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees.” He has a court appearance scheduled for Monday.

In a Friday Instagram statement, the CFA said it “band[s] with immigrant communities” to help protect them from the “invasion of ICE, Department of Homeland Security, National Guard, and local law enforcement,” and claimed the Trump administration “continues to terrorize” immigrants.

On Sunday, the group posted Caravello “has been located in Los Angeles” and noted three ways to “support” him, which includes being present upon his release from custody.

On Monday, Caravello was released on bail from federal custody; he is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 1, the Ventura Star reported.

His attorney said he vows to fight the charges and the CFA celebrated his release, the newspaper reported.

According to his faculty page, Caravello’s research interests include epistemology, rationality, and “transcendental arguments.”

Faculty group demands release of Cal State professor ‘kidnapped’ by ICE | The College Fix
attorney says he was ‘arrested for throwing a tear gas canister’ at agents.

http://thecollegefix.com/faculty-group-demands-release-of-cal-state-professor-kidnapped-by-ice/

CNN: California farmworker dies after falling from greenhouse roof during chaotic ICE raid

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A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known person to die during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

Duran posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.

The United Farm Workers reported Alanis’ death prematurely late Friday. The Ventura County Medical Center later issued a statement authorized by the family saying he was still on life support.

“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the UFW said recently in a statement on the social platform X. The union does not represent workers at the raided farm.

The Department of Homeland Security said it executed criminal search warrants Thursday at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria. Glass House is a licensed cannabis grower. The farm in Camarillo also grows tomatoes and cucumbers.

Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly was fleeing agents before he fell about 30 feet from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.

Agents arrested some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, DHS said in a statement. Alanis was not among them, the agency said.

“This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “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 medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”

Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers,” according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

During the raid crowds of people gathered outside the facility in Camarillo to seek information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke.

Glass House said in a statement that immigration agents had valid warrants. The company said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.

“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it said.

The business was co-founded by Graham Farrar and Kyle Kazan. Farrar has donated to California Democrats including Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump, according to campaign finance records. Kazan has donated to both Democrats and Republicans.

California farmworker dies after falling from greenhouse roof during chaotic ICE raid | CNN
A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/us/farmworker-dies-california-immigration-raids-hnk

Independent: Judges are deporting record numbers of young children under Trump

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A far cry from the “bad, hard criminals” Donald Trump said his undocumented immigrants crackdown would focus on, record-breaking numbers of deportation orders have been issued to young immigrant children under the Trump administration, The Independent can reveal.

More kids aged 11 or under — 8,317 — received a removal order from an immigration court in April than any other month in over 35 years of data collection, according to court data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Since Trump’s inauguration in January, judges have ordered removals for over 53,000 immigrant minors.

Those children are predominantly elementary school age or younger. Some 15,000 children were aged under four years old, and 20,000 of them were children aged four to eleven.

Teenagers are also experiencing climbing deportations, with 17,000 seeing a court-ordered removal, although that’s lower than their all-time peak in 2020 under the first Trump administration.

Some of these children being deported are unaccompanied minors, who do not have a legal guardian in the US; though the exact number is unclear, since immigration authorities stopped recording this data years ago.

Children, including toddlers, are required to show up at immigration hearings to be questioned by a judge – and many, unsurprisingly, do not understand what is happening nor the gravity of their situation.

In one case, a source tells the Independent, a young child from Haiti had his immigration court hearing remotely in front of a screen. The child, who had a learning disability, was fidgeting and running around the room. Finally, he pointed at the judge on the screen and asked – “Who’s that?”

In other cases, children are being arrested by ICE with their families, but held in detention and deported separately.

“A six year old child was picked up [by ICE] with his father, separated from his dad, and parked in custody for four months before being deported,” a lawyer familiar with children’s immigration cases told the Independent. The child was unable to receive legal assistance, as he was deported while federal legal funding had been cut.

The deportation outcome rate for immigrant children under age 11 is higher than in any other age group, latest figures show, and has jumped significantly since Trump came into office.

What’s more, under-18s account for one in four (26 percent) of all deportations ordered in immigration court since January – despite the fact that minors make up just 11 percent of the undocumented population.

The vast majority (76 percent) of children under 11 do not have legal representation, and cases are being sped through the system, according to sources close to the courts.

“This is pumping up the deportation numbers on the back of kids – their rights to safety and due process are not respected,” the immigration lawyer told the Independent.

“This is about striking fear in the hearts of everybody. It’s demonstrable cruelty in the name of so-called deterrence.”

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to the Independent:

“Accusations that ICE is ‘targeting’ children are FALSE and an attempt to demonize law enforcement. ICE does not ‘target’ children nor does it deport children. Rather than separate families, ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe the parent designates.”

Highest-ever deportations for young children

Immigration crackdowns across the country have been almost indiscriminate, with new data revealing that ICE is arresting more non-criminals than ever.

The number of people who have been deported under the Trump administration is murky; ICE has not disclosed official figures since January, and available immigration court data is not comprehensive, with age not recorded in 13 percent of cases.

But analysis of court data reveals that children have been increasingly, and disproportionately, marked for deportation in recent months.

Under the Trump administration, immigration courts have quickly ramped up deportation rates. Around two thirds (68 percent) of all immigration court proceedings ended in deportation in May, compared to 39 percent in January.

But for children under 11, the removal rate is even higher, at 75 percent in May; and 78 percent for kids under 4 years old, both substantially higher than the 45 percent seen on average for young kids in January.

This suggests that children are being disproportionately targeted for deportations under this administration, overrepresented by 2.3 times more than their proportion of the illegal immigrant population, our analysis shows.

“What we’re seeing right now is basically a grist mill in immigration court, just scooting kids through the process as quickly as possible,” the lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Independent.

At the same time, children facing immigration court are more vulnerable and less protected than ever.

In spite of this, the Trump administration has been fighting to cancel funding which provides legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children.

The government first issued a stop-work order in February, and cancelled federal contracts in March. In April the federal district court ordered the Trump administration to restore funding, saying it is congressionally mandated under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA).

Legal assistance programs told the Independent that they had since been re-contracted; but remain on “pins and needles” as the government appeals the court ruling, and Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill makes it harder and more expensive to sue against his policies.

Rocket dockets and separating families

In the meantime, children are being put on expedited paths through immigration court, known as “rocket dockets”, according to the immigration lawyer.

Many of these cases are going through in just two weeks from start to finish – which leaves little-to-no room for a child to prepare the necessary documents and arguments.

“Of course, a child is going to file a case that’s not completely fleshed out in all the legal arguments, because they don’t understand the legal argument,” the lawyer told the Independent.

“This is also really damaging for trafficking victims. Kids who have experienced severe trauma need the time to have their nervous system relax, to understand that they’re safe, to share some of the most sensitive details about their cases.”

These tactics evoke the family separation policy, employed in 2018 under the first Trump administration, which forcibly kept parents and children apart when detained at the border – with as many as 1,360 families never reunited, according to Human Rights Watch.

“It is seen as against the due process rights of a child to be systematically separated from their parent or legal guardian,” the lawyer explained.

“What’s clear is that they are sidestepping the legal settlement to protect children from these cruel techniques.”

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

Judges are deporting record numbers of young children under Trump
Exclusive: Immigration judges broke records with the number of young children they have ordered removed from the US in April —with lawyers accusing Trump of “pumping up deportation numbers on the backs of kids, data correspondent Alicja Hagopian reports

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-immigration-child-deportation-numbers-b2786626.html

Reuters: Trump administration defends immigration tactics after California worker death

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“Padilla said he had spoken with the UFW about the farmworker who died in the ICE raid. He said a steep arrest quota imposed by the Trump administration in late May had led to more aggressive and dangerous enforcement.

“‘It’s causing ICE to get more aggressive, more cruel, more extreme, and these are the results,’ Padilla said. It’s people dying.'”

Federal officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s escalating campaign to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally, including a California farm raid that left one worker dead, and said the administration would appeal a ruling to halt some of its more aggressive tactics.

Trump has vowed to deport millions of people in the country illegally and has executed raids at work sites including farms that were largely exempted from enforcement during his first term. The administration has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country for its tactics.

Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem and Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that the administration would appeal a federal judge’s Friday ruling that blocked the administration from detaining immigrants based solely on racial profiling and denying detained people the right to speak with a lawyer.

In interviews with Fox News and CNN, Noem criticized the judge, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, and denied that the administration had used the tactics described in the lawsuit.

“We will appeal, and we will win,” she said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that physical characteristics could be one factor among multiple that would establish a reasonable suspicion that a person lacked legal immigration status, allowing federal officers to stop someone.

During a chaotic raid and resulting protests on Thursday at two sites of a cannabis farm in Southern California, 319 people in the U.S. illegally were detained and federal officers encountered 14 migrant minors, Noem said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” 

Workers were injured during the raid and one later died from his injuries, according to the United Farm Workers.

Homan told CNN that the farmworker’s death was tragic but that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were doing their jobs and executing criminal search warrants.

“It’s always unfortunate when there’s deaths,” he said.

U.S. Senator Alex Padilla said on CNN that federal agents are using racial profiling to arrest people. Padilla, a California Democrat and the son of Mexican immigrants, was forcibly removed from a Noem press conference in Los Angeles in June and handcuffed after trying to ask a question.

Padilla said he had spoken with the UFW about the farmworker who died in the ICE raid. He said a steep arrest quota imposed by the Trump administration in late May had led to more aggressive and dangerous enforcement.

“It’s causing ICE to get more aggressive, more cruel, more extreme, and these are the results,” Padilla said. “It’s people dying.”

Trump administration defends immigration tactics after California worker death
Administration officials said they would appeal a ruling to halt some of its more aggressive tactics.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-defends-immigration-tactics-after-california-worker-death-2025-07-13

CNN: Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages

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Deep in the hazardous and ecologically fragile Everglades, hundreds of migrants are confined in cages in a makeshift tent detention facility Florida’s Republican governor calls “safe and secure” and Democratic lawmakers call “inhumane.”

Two days after filing a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being “unlawfully denied entry” to inspect conditions at the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” members of Congress and state representatives were given a limited tour Saturday to inspect conditions after calling the lack of access a “deliberate obstruction meant to hide what’s really happening behind those gates,” according to a joint statement from lawmakers.

They said they heard detainees shouting for help and crying out “libertad”— Spanish for “freedom” — amid sweltering heat, bug infestations and meager meals.

“They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District, said during a news conference following their tour.

The families of some of the detainees have also decried conditions in the facility, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials defend it as offering higher detention standards than many US prisons.

Lawmakers Shown Empty Cells

On the tour, the lawmakers said they were not allowed to visit areas where migrants are currently being detained but instead were shown cells not yet being used.

Wasserman Schultz said each cage contained three small toilets with attached sinks, which detainees use for drinking water and brushing their teeth, sharing the same water used to flush the toilets.

When they toured the kitchen area, Wasserman Schultz said government employees were being offered large pieces of roast chicken and sausages, while the detainees’ lunch consisted of a “gray turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple and chips.”

“I don’t see how that could possibly sustain them nutritionally or not make them hungry,” Wasserman Schultz said. “And when you have hungry people, obviously their mood changes.”

Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who was also on the tour, said the lawmakers were concerned about reports of unhygienic conditions due to toilets not working and “feces being spread everywhere,” but were denied access from viewing units where migrants are currently detained.

They were also not permitted to view the medical facilities, with officials citing HIPAA laws, despite lawmakers being allowed to examine the medical facilities at other detention facilities, he said.

“It is something everyone, whether you’re Democrat, Republican or anything, should be deeply ashamed of,” Frost said. “Immigrants don’t poison the blood of this nation. They are the blood of this nation.”

US Rep. Darren Soto said lawmakers also witnessed evidence of flooding, highlighting serious concerns of what could happen to detainees if there’s severe weather during what forecasters said may be a busy hurricane season.

“What we saw in our inspection today was a political stunt, dangerous and wasteful,” Soto said after the tour. “One can’t help but understand and conclude that this is a total cruel political stunt meant to have a spectacle of political theater and it’s wasting taxpayer dollars and putting our ICE agents, our troops and ICE detainees in jeopardy.”

About 900 people are currently detained at the facility, Wasserman Schultz said during the news conference but it has the capacity to hold 3,000 people, with room for more, according to Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The wife of a 43-year-old Guatemalan man currently detained at “Alligator Alcatraz” told CNN her husband is enduring harsh conditions similar to those described by lawmakers who toured the facility. After more than two weeks in detention, she said, he has yet to see a lawyer.

“There are too many mosquitoes … He’s in a really bad condition. The power goes off at times because they’re using generators,” the woman told CNN in an interview Tuesday.

“The detainees are being held in tents, and it is very hot there. They’re in bad conditions. … There’s not enough food. Sick people are not getting medication. Every time I ask about his situation, he tells me it’s bad,” she said.

The Guatemalan woman said she, her husband, and their 11-month-old baby went fishing on June 25 in the Everglades. A Florida wildlife officer approached them and asked for documents. Her husband had a valid driver’s license, she said, but when the officer realized she didn’t have any documents proving she was in the country legally, the officer called immigration authorities who detained the whole family.

After spending seven-and-a-half hours in what she describes as a “dirty holding cell,” she and her baby – a US citizen – were released, but her husband was detained. She now wears an ankle bracelet.

Her husband later told her he remained in detention at the Dania Beach Jail, near Fort Lauderdale, for eight days, before being transferred to “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Once transferred, he was unable to take a shower for six days and there were not enough facilities for washing hands, she said. On Friday, he was woken up at 3 a.m. to take a shower because of the number of people waiting for their turn, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Florida detention facility, did not immediately reply to CNN’s request for comment about specific allegations about conditions there.

In a written statement posted on X Tuesday, DHS said, “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Set Up In Just Eight Days

In little over a week, workers transformed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from an 11,000-foot runway into a temporary tent city President Donald Trump toured last week.

Trump raved about the facility’s “incredible” quick construction during his visit and pointed to the detention center as an example of what he wants to implement “in many states.”

The project was fast-tracked under an executive order from DeSantis, who framed illegal immigration as a state emergency.

Sounds like more of a coverup than a tour!

Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages | CNN
Deep in the hazardous and ecologically fragile Everglades, hundreds of migrants are confined in cages in a makeshift tent detention facility Florida’s Republican governor calls “safe and secure” and Democratic lawmakers call “inhumane.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/12/us/alligator-alcatraz-lawmaker-tour-conditions

The Hill: [Bimbo #2] Noem on blocked ICE operations ruling: Judges are ‘getting too political’

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem criticized a ruling from a federal judge that bars the Trump administration from using “unconstitutional” immigration enforcement efforts in parts of California, saying judges are “getting political” and that it is “not their job.”

During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” [Bimbo #2] Noem was asked about the Friday ruling from U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of former President Biden. The order granted two temporary restraining orders preventing officials from targeting individuals for removal on the basis of race, language or employment and requiring the Department of Homeland Security to grant detainees access to legal counsel. 

“Well, this federal judge’s ruling is ridiculous. We never ran our operations that way,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said.

“We’ve seen this across the country over and over and over again, where judges are getting political. It’s not their job,” she added. “I hope they can bring some dignity back to the bench because we’re lacking it now for many of these federal judges.”

[Bimbo #2] Noem said the judge’s ruling is “wrong” and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not target individuals on the basis of race, language or employment, adding that they will win their case.

F*CK*NG LIAR!

“It’s been done exactly how law enforcement has operated for many years in this country, and ICE is out there making sure we get the worst off the streets,” she added. “So this judge made a decision that we will appeal and we will win, because he’s wrong. We’ve never targeted individuals based on those qualifications that he laid out.”

F*CK*NG LIAR!

Her statement follows a Fox News interview with President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who said that federal immigration agents do not need probable cause to detain people for a short period and that agents can “just go through the observations, get articulable facts, based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.”

“People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,” he said on “Fox & Friends” on Friday.

His statement comes weeks after protests in Los Angeles and surrounding areas erupted over an uptick in ICE raids.

Stupid sycophantic Trump suck-up!

Noem on blocked ICE operations ruling: Judges are ‘getting too political’

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5398727-noem-ice-operations-ruling

Straight Arrow News: Washington state agency shared license, vehicle info with ICE: Report

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A Washington state agency, the Department of Licensing, provided Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies with access to private driver’s license and vehicle information, KING 5 said in a report published on Friday, July 11. This is the case even though Washington has laws in place prohibiting local agencies from sharing personal data with the federal government if they’re using it for deportations.

A similar finding was revealed in 2018. After protests against the department sharing personal data with federal agencies, as well as legislative pressure, the Department of Licensing canceled a lot of those agreements.

KING 5 found that some of these accounts were quietly reinstated, including ones with ICE, Border Patrol and other Homeland Security entities. The news outlet wrote that this has led to a “dramatic” surge in data searches since the election of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations.

Federal officials’ use of the Department of Licensing accounts increased by 188% since Trump was elected to a second non-consecutive term in November 2024. ICE’s account,for instance, showed searches for driver and vehicle records went from about 540 in November to 1,600 in May 2025.

The Department of Licensing said in emails to KING 5 that they are following state and federal laws, and attributed the increase in account use to significant variability” in monthly searches and a shift across “two presidential administrations with two different immigration ideologies.”

Jennie Pasquarella, the legal director of a nonprofit representing immigrants called the Clemency Project, expressed her concerns about the reopening of these accounts to KING 5.

“As ICE is ramping up their enforcement actions in our state, the last thing we want is for them to be able to search a treasure trove of information about home addresses,” she stated. “It is critical that we ensure that information is walled off so that people don’t fear accessing it.”

It’s time to roll some head in Olympia. Remove the unauthorized illegal access and fire those who permitted it.

Washington state agency shared license, vehicle info with ICE: Report
Washington state’s Department of Licensing provided ICE with access to driver’s license and vehicle information: Report

https://san.com/cc/washington-state-agency-shared-license-vehicle-info-with-ice-report