About 35 agricultural workers were pulled from a Pacific Tomatoes bus and loaded into vans during an ICE raid outside of Immokalee Wednesday morning, according to a witness.
The witness is with Unidos Immokalee, a grass roots, social action group formed five years ago. She asked to not be identified.
She and another woman from the group told WGCU that three minors were taken to a hospital after getting injured by law enforcement officers who dragged them out of a vehicle and pushed them to the ground.
They said the minors were called by their agricultural worker mother who was initially detained by ICE. ICE, the witnesses said, allowed the mother off the bus to be with her children at the hospital.
Word of the raid spread after a Facebook warning from Unidos Immokalee urged people to not “Enter or leave Immokalee. Do not depart Immokalee.”
Pacific Tomato Growers is a Florida-based family-owned tomato grower, packer and shipper that does transport workers by bus to vegetable fields to pick tomatoes and other produce.
When reached, a Pacific Tomatoes manager in Immokalee said "no comment."
It is planting season in South Florida. Pacific Tomato Growers had been advertising for laborers to work from late October until mid-December. Companies are required to advertise for jobs before they can get approval from the government to hire foreign workers for the field work.
Pacific Tomato Growers is among one of the top importers of foreign workers.
There has been no response yet to numerous requests for comment by WGCU sent to the company's corporate office in Palmetto regarding the Wednesday raid on the tomato bus.
The witnesses said the Florida Highway Patrol, Border Patrol and the National Guard were assisting ICE.
A WGCU request for comment from the FHP was not immediately responded to.
A second witness WGCU spoke with said she saw law enforcement officers beating on the windows of a truck that was driving in the area of the stopped tomato bus.
She said this happened after someone in the truck shouted an expletive at the ICE agents.
She said the men were forcibly removed from the truck and taken to the ground.
"There's racial profiling that's happening. The attacks are being escalated and becoming violent," she said.
The women said the Unidos Immokalee group is composed of local professionals such as herself. "[We are] teachers, social workers, attorneys. We have been trained to be legal observers through the ACLU," she said.
"It's within our rights to educate people about the right to remain silent, the right as citizens to document any police interactions as well," she said. "All of this is completely legal. We've trained multiple volunteers to be legal observers, so that they can be out there documenting and reporting to the ACLU what is happening."
This is a developing story. WGCU will update the report when new information is available.
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