Whether floods, shootings, or riots, it’s hard for a day to go by without some tragic news occurring. That said, ICE is continuing its streak of terrorizing immigrants as it caused a farmworker to die during the raid of a farm in California. He allegedly fell 30 feet from a greenhouse and died from his fatal injuries. The Department of Homeland Security claimed its “agents were not responsible for the man’s death,” according to an email statement received by Reuters. However, ICE forced many of the witnesses to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones, causing some to believe this was an attempt to destroy crucial evidence.
“ICE caused a man to be defenestrated, killing him, they are forcing detained witnesses to surrender and erase their evidence, and US citizens [are] still being detained due to this colossal f**k up, with some still unaccounted for,” remarks an angry commenter. “ICE has blood on its hands, and it won’t stop until it is abolished.” Another Reddit user chimes in, saying, “That tells you something.” Others added that the witnesses should have made use of the cloud after recording; that way, the evidence will remain on the internet even after it’s deleted.
Many more commenters continued criticizing ICE while fueling the fear and suspicion that important evidence was erased. One person made a solid guess as to why it happened:
“Consciousness of guilt right there. They know that if the public sees the full scope of what happened (how they actually treated these workers, the level of force used, the chaos they created) there would be even more outrage than there already is. Massive civil rights violation. Obstruction, intimidation, and suppression of evidence all rolled into one. Makes you wonder what other evidence they’re trying to hide.”
As one person puts it: “If civilians are harmed in the process, there needs to be full transparency and public accountability.” A worker dying from the raid is bad enough, but the fact that many more have likely been injured and their lives negatively affected is alarming. Reuters has confirmed that several were physically hurt, so there’s no telling what ICE isn’t disclosing to the public.
