The large-scale federal law enforcement operation at Glass House Farms-owned locations in Carpinteria and Camarillo last Thursday has led to numerous arrests, allegations of misconduct, and tragic consequences. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released further details about the raid on Sunday, revising upwards the number of people taken into custody.
According to a DHS press release on Sunday, the department claims at least 361 individuals and 14 children were detained during the operation. The totals represent a sharp increase from the initial tally of 200 individuals and 10 children announced by DHS on Friday. The discrepancy has yet to be explained by federal officials.
Allegations of Child Labor Prompted Raid, Says DHS
The Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which operates under DHS, stated last week that Glass House Farms is under investigations for child labor laws. Glass House Farms maintains its innocence, stating it had fully complied with federal warrants and asserting that it “has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors.”
The raid reportedly uncovered potential instances of exploitation, forced child labor, and possible human trafficking, as claimed by DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. However, no additional evidence has been publicly provided to substantiate these claims.
Fatalities and Injuries During the Operation
The operation turned tragic when Jaime Alanis Garcia, an employee at the Glass House Farms location near Camarillo, sustained head and neck injuries after falling from a building during the raid. Alanis, a husband and father, succumbed to his injuries days later at Ventura County Medical Center.
Alanis’ family created a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his funeral expenses. “My uncle Jaime was just a hard-working, innocent farmer… He was chased by ICE agents, and we were told he fell 30 feet,” the post reads. “He was his family’s only provider. They took one of our family members. We need justice.”
His family stated he will be buried in his hometown in Michoacán where his wife and daughter are waiting for him.
Several others were injured during the raid. Protesters reportedly suffered minor injuries, while multiple farm workers sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Meanwhile, George Retes, a 25-year-old disabled veteran and U.S. citizen, employed as a security guard for the farm, was detained during the raid. Retes spent three days in federal custody before being released without charge.
Public Backlash and Criminal Charges
The raid has sparked significant controversy, with protestors arriving on the scene in both Camarillo and Carpinteria during the farm raids. Federal officials have since charged four U.S. citizens with criminal offenses for allegedly assaulting or resisting officers.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a protestor who allegedly fired an unknown weapon towards federal agents.
Federal Officials Defend the Operation
DHS officials have lauded the operation as a significant enforcement success. Assistant Secretary McLaughlin praised agents for their efforts under challenging circumstances, claiming the operation resulted in the rescue of 14 migrant children and the arrest of four individuals with prior convictions for crimes such as rape and DUI.
“This is quickly becoming one of the largest operations since President Trump took office,” McLaughlin said. U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli echoed these sentiments, warning that further arrests would be made for interference.
DHS has not commented on any prior criminal convictions of the remaining 357 people it detained, or provided any further information or followup evidence of the alleged migrant children that were also detained.
Misinformation and Unanswered Questions
Despite DHS touting the operation’s outcomes, it has not addressed several pressing questions. The apparent discrepancy in the number of those detained, the lack of substantiated evidence regarding child labor, and the circumstances surrounding Alanis’ fatal fall.
Additionally, the official ICE account on X posted inaccurate information regarding the peaceful protest that took place during the raid in Carpinteria where Congressman Salud Carbajal was present.
“Rep. Salud Carbajal was part of a violent mob of protestors attempting to obstruct federal law enforcement as they executed a criminal search warrant at a marijuana facility. He cites ‘peaceful’ protestors, when in fact these rioters were launching rocks at officers, injuring at least one ICE employee who was left bloody,” ICE states.
The agency went on to state that Rep. Carbajal shared the business card of an ICE agent with protestors leading to that agent being “doxxed.”
Rep. Carbajal responded by saying this is a blatant attempt to distort what occurred in Carpinteria.
“DHS and ICE conducted their raid using a disturbing and disproportionate level of force, both on the farm workers they were targeting and the peaceful protesters who gathered to defend their neighbors. I witnessed agents, in full military gear, fire smoke canisters and other projectiles into a crowd of peaceful civilians. Just before I arrived at the scene, witnesses told me the agents threw a stun grenade into the crowd. Several civilians were injured, including a child,” Rep. Carbajal stated.
“ICE’s claims of ‘doxxing’ and ‘violent mobs’ are familiar deflection tactics designed to distort public perception and to evade accountability for their aggressive actions in our community,” he said.
Edhat can confirm the protest in Carpinteria was peaceful and protestors were not launching rocks. This was evidenced by reports from numerous bystanders, witnesses, protestors, and reporters that were there in person. DHS has not provided evidence of their “doxxing” claim.
Civil rights groups, migrant advocates, and local officials have called for increased transparency from federal authorities, as the incident continues to fuel debate in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Related Articles
https://www.edhat.com/news/200-arrested-in-ice-raids-at-local-marijuana-farms-one-person-died-with-several-others-arrested-and-injured/
https://www.edhat.com/news/carpinteria-community-responds-to-ice-raids-with-emergency-city-council-actions/
https://www.edhat.com/news/update-ice-raids-glass-house-farms-in-carpinteria-with-national-guard-prompting-large-protest/
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So, out of the 361 people who were subjected to racist harassment and hauled away from their hometown and their families despite being hard working taxpayers, only 4… FOUR… had criminal records for any violent or serious non-violent (DUI) crime. That is 1%.
ONE PERCENT of these folks were violent criminals. The ends do not justify the means. This is not about criminals, clearly.
Any word on the undocumented children being used as slave labor by this illegal marijuana grow?
Yes. The word is falsehood.
Children were working there. Bummer for GH.
Now post proof or STFU
How do you know?
there were no children working at the licensed and legitimate farm and nursery….not an illegal grow. get your facts straight and stop posting right wing propaganda….
How about raid the factories in the south where white pre-teens work?
GT – well, as we’ve all seen, nearly every day now, this has nothing to do with child labor and everything to do with racism.
No business owners are being arrested for hiring undocumented workers. No white undocumented workers are being rounded up and sent to jungle camps. Heck, even Latino workers in Red states aren’t being harassed.
This has always been about vengeance against anything liberal and everything non-white.
ZIP – “Any word on the undocumented children being used as slave labor”
No, because they weren’t slaves. Maybe ask the only people alleging these people were workers or even kids – DHS. You know, the same DHS that is now trying to say it’s “fake news” that Kristi the Dog Killer fired a bunch of FEMA staff, causing thousands of phone calls to go unanswered after the deadly floods in Texas.
Simple question: where is your outrage about the Epstein files that suddenly became “non existent?” You know, the same ones that Trump is now saying were written by Hilary, Obama and Biden, but yeah….. still don’t exist all of a sudden.
Meanwhile Repugs want to do away with the need for work permits and lower the age to work in many states down to 12-13 years old so kids can work in factories, and work lots of overtime.
DHS is a weaponized terror group under Project 2025 and their marionette Donald Trump.
Laws.
Yes, laws don’t apply to the orange moron, and are ignored by his fascist enablers.
How many felonies for Trump? Over thirty, right?
Convicted of 34 felonies, charged with 88 criminal counts.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Paid hush money once to Stormy (legal) and then they labeled 34 payments as crimes due to it being accounted for as legal fees. BTW this is a misdemeanor and nobody else has ever been convicted of this.
Nope–felony falsification of business records. Felonies–34 of them.
And now you should talk about the sexual assault ruling.
And of course you can also talk about the myriad of crimes that he’s gotten away with.
ANON – actually, it was a felony. 34 counts of a felony.
“BTW this is a misdemeanor and nobody else has ever been convicted of this.”
Nobody has ever been convicted of falsifying business records? LOL just stop. You people just can’t stop lying, can you?
What law school did you go to?
actually he’s a felon, not a misdemeanor convict. a felon.
The Orange Felon is facing 91 criminal charges, and counting:
https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/trumps-91-criminal-charges-and-where-they-stand/
I understand the “Rules” have now changed and all… My concern revolves around George Retes, a 25-year-old disabled veteran and U.S. citizen, employed … spending 3 days in Federal custody before being released without being charged. “How long can federal hold you without charges?” it said:
“Most states allow prosecutors up to 72 hours after an arrest to file charges, although some states, like California, allow only 48 hours. If the prosecutor fails to bring charges within this time limit, the court has to release you. Failure to do that is a violation of your rights.”
Maybe I wasn’t the only one?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/disabled-u-veteran-released-without-235427586.html
🚴
Forced child labor, and possible human trafficking:
https://www.courthousenews.com/rape-allegations-refiled-against-trump/
This is the violent criminal.
BASIC – ““Fascist” is the new Dem word for anyone who is an American that obeys laws and loves our country.”
Just stop it, you mindless liar. You voted for a felon. A man who admitted to sexual assault. A man who then released hundreds of violent criminals convicted of beating law enforcement officers, some to death. You cheer for detaining non-criminal immigrants who are working and paying taxes to subsidize benefits that you receive and they don’t.
You don’t give AF about laws, unless certain people break them.
Child labor is very illegal and GH Farms has some explaining to do.
There wasn’t any child labor going on there, except in the minds of credulous fools.
Better get used to child labor in the future, though, courtesy of the Big Beautiful Bankruptcy.
Child laborers were discovered and were the reason for the warrants being issued beforehand though.
ANON – lol no they were not. They didn’t go in there looking for child laborers. You gotta stop getting your “news” from memes on Facebook and comments of other fools who open wide for every lie this proven corrupt and racist government tells you.
They found some young looking people who might be under 21 and are now claiming, without any proof provided, that they were minors and employed there.
An adult under 21 working at a pot farm is not “child trafficking” or “child slavery.”
Post a source. Or STFU
Flying high on con social media propaganda, and not using supplemental oxygen, it seems.
Willfully ignorant or just stupid? I seem to have been asking myself that for the last 10 years far too often. Recently I’ve added thinking maybe it’s just cult membership. Now I realize it’s answer D. All of the Above.
ANON – yes, child labor IS illegal in some cases and if GF Farms actually violated those labor laws, they do have some explaining to do.
But…. until the DHS can actually provide some evidence that the people in their sick photo op were actually minors who actually were working there, I’m going to believe them as much as I believe in leprechauns.
I’d love to see the DHS evidence first. Trump and his goons have been fact-checked and shown to be liars. So let’s see the facts.
Yeah, if GH was breaking the law and in particular had kids working there then they should be charged to the fullest extent possible and face real consequences–
Unlike Trump and his band of criminals
It is amazing that some folks are defending child labor and think it’s A-OK just so the weed growers can keep their costs down. Wow…just wow.
Okay, now show where anyone has ever done that.
Or maybe just STFU
Yeah. The Big Beautiful Bankruptcy just passed has provisions to expand child labor. You should be appalled.
Hmmm. I started working at my father’s service station at age 11 during summers. I was in charge of the self-service island – collecting money, looking up credit cards in the little book of revoked cards that came out once a week, and resetting the pumps after someone paid. Was that child labor? I really think that was the biggest single thing that made me who I am today and the reason for many of the successes I’ve had. I bought my first car with my own money at 15.5. It’s summer now. Maybe some parents didn’t have daycare and could offer work for their kids that didn’t involve smoking or handling weed? Maybe. I’m thinking we’ll never know, just like the Epstein files.
Sounds to me like a defense of child labor. Times have changed. And a family business this massive Glass House corporate pot enterprise is not….
BASIC – “Sounds to me like a defense of child labor.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8qnvaVfMJ0
Did you not know that in CA, kids as young as 12 can work in agriculture? Of course not.
If you’re so concerned about child labor (or child rape), why did you vote for a “man” who was best buddies with a known child sex trafficker and pedophile? “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” the magazine reported Trump saying in a phone interview. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Can you explain your support of pedophile-buddies?
Yep, lazy moron. Sac nailed it. Once DHS gives you more info on the “kids” forced to do labor for free like slaves I hope you’ll pass it on. And if they don’t then ban yourself from being stupid here for at least a week.
So you’re against anyone under the age of 18 working? Seriously? That’s bizarre.
The sick and deviant republican terrorist party has been working too lower the age requirement for children to work, the amount of overtime children can work, allow them to work in more hazardous environments and extend the total hours per week they can work.
PRELIM – Yeah….. about those Epstein files that Obama, Hilary and Biden wrote with Comey years before the investigation even started…..
Funny how the same MAGORONS will guzzle and gobble up all the lies from a proven liar and actual criminal.
They demanded the Epstein files for years as they shrieked about child sex trafficking and now that their deviant subhuman of “president” tells them there’s no client list, they just accept it.
These people are hopeless, and useless.
Yep. While these clinically diagnosable cluster-b perosonalities can hurt us through their vote, that’s about it. They have no shame or humility whatsoever. Can you imagine being a family member, coworker, “friend”, or employee? Those are the people are the directly in harms way, and likely are subject to toxic stress on the regular. No fixing stupid.
REPUBLICANS are trying to lower the age for kids to work,, and extend their ability to work overtime, the times of day they work, and the amount of hours they work. So there is that.
BEES – “It is amazing that some folks are defending child labor and think it’s A-OK:
No one, absolutely NO ONE here is defending child labor, you blithering DA. Some are rightfully questioning the claims of the DHS because, well….. they’re a bunch of proven liars and racists, especially since they’ve refused to provide anything close to evidence to back their claim that these people were actually employed there or even minors at all.
It’s shocking to us that so many people, YES YOU, just blindly swallow everything the Trump administration tells you. It’s pathetic and ridiculous to see grown adults allow themselves to be swindled and cheated so easily and repeatedly.
Perhaps you have some inside information that other folks don’t have. Just be thankful that if any children were working as “slave” labor, that they are now safe.
They’re safe now? Prove it!
The irony of this post is so entertaining sack, thank you
Why do you append your IQ to your name?
BEES – yes, I do have “inside information.” It’s called independent and critical thinking. If DHS had any proof of this hot topic, don’t you think they’d be shouting it from the rooftops? They know you MAGAts love this stuff (unless Trump and Epstein actually traffic and rape kids, you could give AF about that). Until they do, no, I don’t believe a word they say. No intelligent people do.
As for them being “safe” LOL! Are you fing kidding? Where are they? They’ve been detained by DHS and ICE and taken from their homes. How is that safe? Why is no one asking where these people are? Those who are over 18 but under 21 (“minors” when it comes to cannabis) are likely being housed with adults in the horrendous detention facilities in LA or maybe even already out at your Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp.
Yeah, like you actually care about children. If you did, you wouldn’t support what ICE is doing to them by the thousands across our country. STHU with that bull.
STEVE – you don’t know what the word, “irony,” means so stop pretending like you do.
This has been the proper argument all along. I’ve been watching this endless wasted breath, cruelty, emotion and public-funds-grifting over something that already has laws to make it a non-issue. There are laws on the books RIGHT NOW to penalize EMPLOYERS that hire folks illegally. A few high profile cases of employers being held accountable and !poof! problem solved and we didn’t have to spend an extra dime, and likely made a dollar. No work = no reason to come here. Think of all the money that could be saved and better spent on public services and needs. No fences needed. But actually fixing the problem was never in the plan. What better way to dole out trillions of hard earned tax-payer dollars to your billionaire buddies – oh yea just give it to them directly. Then there’s that.
But…but…
If you’re racist, arresting the mostly WASPish actual lawbreakers isn’t any fun!
Exactly!
White dumb people beating up cops with flagpoles, fire extinguishers and worse as they try to reverse our democratic process? A-ok!
White, rich people hiring undocumented immigrants by the thousands to increase their profits? Yee-haw!
White billionaires paying each other to kidnap an traffic children so they can rape them on an island? You betcha!
A white criminal fraud who has cheated on every wife he’s ever had and admitted to sexual assault as he brags about dating little girls when they get older? Oh boy… oh yes…. USA! USA! USA!
The trash in this country has spoiled. Where’s the dumptruck?
It’s already been collected and dumped in the whitehouse. We get to suffer from the stench daily on our personal Smell-O-Scopes (pick your screen).
Did you guys see the Channel Islands University math professor who got caught throwing a tear gas canister at the Feds? Adios to your career dude.
BASIC – he was simply returning their property. I’d be happy to write a letter to the Dean to support him.
When you shoot tear gas canisters at a crowd of unarmed people chanting “this is a peaceful protest,” you get your canister thrown back at you. Self defense.
Did you read that thing in the history books where those German soldiers got killed? And no on in the USA shed a single tear for them? Yeah, those guys were drafted.
These ICE thugs assault innocent people for a paycheck.
BASIC loves it when others’ careers look like they might fail. Makes him feel no so alone.
Honestly though, I would fully support more resistance, even violent, against people who are harming innocent, unarmed parents while they’re trying to work to pay the taxes that fund these same filthy pigs and racists.
There’s only so much a populace can take. Look at all revolutions throughout history. We’re due for another.
The GOP is complacent in supporting domestic terrorists and destroying the constitution. Many of the followers stick their heads in the sand. ALL of them will have their judgement day.
A REAL business can ALWAYS blame it on the contractors.
See the current coverage of Volkswagen’s Brazil cattle farm run by slave labor hired by their labor contractors.
search “volkswagen brazil beef farm” for quick AI summary and a ton of articles about it.