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By Euronews
Published on 11/07/2025 - 13:59 GMT+2
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Federal agents clashed with protesters during an immigration raid at a cannabis farm in Southern California on Thursday, firing munitions and appearing to pin one demonstrator to the ground.
Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents appeared at two locations in the state, one in Santa Barbara and another in the county community of Camarillo, close to Los Angeles.
Images showed dozens of protesters on a road between fields with uniformed officers who fired what appeared to be smoke to disperse the crowds. Other footage showed a group of agents restraining a protester on the ground.
California governor Gavin Newsom shared a video on Thursday from broadcaster KTLA appearing to show children fleeing from smoke fired by agents.
"Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me 'Newscum' — but he's the real scum," Newsom said.
It was not immediately clear why the agents sprayed smoke or whether any chemical agents were used.
Glass House Farms, which operates the two state-licensed cannabis farms, said on social media the locations were visited Thursday by officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The farms "fully complied with agent search warrants," the company said in a statement posted on social media.
California Democrat Salud Carbajal said in a post on X that he was denied access to the raid site and company officials later told him that 10 workers had been taken into custody.
He accused the ICE agents of "targeting farm workers."
The incident comes as immigration enforcement officials have ramped up raids and arrests in California.
The Trump administration has allowed the national guard to provide protection for federal immigration agents carrying out the raids.
This week, he deployed dozens of officers and 90 national guard troops — some on horseback — to the mostly empty MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.
In June, the Trump administration ordered ICE to halt carrying out raids on farms before reversing the decision several days later.
