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SACRAMENTO – CFT–A Union of Educators and Classified Professionals released the following statement from President Jeff Freitas:

“CFT vehemently condemns the ongoing violent actions against our communities in California and the abduction of non-violent protestors who are being denied their First Amendment rights.  

“While raiding farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria on Thursday, federal agents violently attacked workers, arresting hundreds without due process, and injuring many. Farmworker Jaime Alanis died from his injuries sustained in the raid.

“We join the California Faculty Association in demanding the immediate release of CSU Channel Islands professor Jonathan A. Caravello along with the hundreds of other workers and community members unlawfully detained by immigration officials on Thursday. 

“Professor Caravello and others were exercising their constitutional right to protest peacefully when Caravello was brutally tackled and detained by federal agents as he attempted to assist a wheelchair-bound legal observer who was struggling to breath after ICE officers launched tear gas into the crowd.

“We call for an immediate end to the Trump administration’s terror campaign against our immigrant communities through his militarized and masked ICE, DHS, and CBP agents. These are the actions of an authoritarian regime, not a democracy that is governed by a Constitution that has a Bill of Rights.”

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CFT – A Union of Educators and Classified Professionals represents 120,000 teachers, faculty, and school employees in public and private schools and colleges, from early childhood through higher education. It is the statewide affiliate of the AFT.