Glass House Brands, the cannabis company whose California farms were raided by federal agents last month, has issued a press release refuting claims made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
On July 10, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other undisclosed federal agents, conducted raids at Glass House Farms locations in Carpinteria and Camarillo which detained numerous people and led to the death of one man.
Glass House Questions Arrest Numbers
According to a DHS press release issued days after the raid, the department claims at least 361 individuals and 14 children were detained during the operation. DHS released an initial tally of 200 individuals and 10 children one day after the event, but did not explain the discrepancy in numbers.
Glass House Farms’ issued a press release on Monday stating a federal search warrant was served authorizing the search for evidence of possible immigration violations under Title 8 of the United States Code, but very few documents were seized pursuant to the search warrant.
The farm also states only nine employees of their company were detained or arrested and they have been unable to verify the actual number or the identities of those detained regarding the 361 people DHS claims.
“Any other individuals detained or arrested would have been either employees of third-party contractors providing services at the [Glass House] Camarillo farm, including the Farm Labor Contractors providing labor for the agricultural operations, or were unassociated with the [Glass House],” the farm states.
Protests took place outside both farm locations while ICE conducted its raid. The protest in Carpinteria was nonviolent, while DHS states protestors in Camarillo became aggressive.
Glass House stated they do not believe any of their employees were involved in protests.
“The media also reported that violent protests broke out outside the law enforcement barricades in response to the raids and resulting detentions/arrests. It is the Company’s belief that no employees of the Company were in any way involved in the protests,” the statement read.
One Worker Dies and a U.S. Citizen and Army Veteran Detained
Jaime Alanis Garcia, a third-party contractor working at the Camarillo farm, died from injuries sustained during the raid.
Garcia, a husband and father, sustained head and neck injuries after falling 30-feet from a building during the raid. He succumbed to his injuries days later at Ventura County Medical Center.
Garcia’s 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.”
An employee of the security contractor for the Camarillo farm, George Retes, was reportedly detained for three days without charges. He is a US citizen and Army veteran.
In a social media post, Retes states that he was “pepper-sprayed, tear-gassed, had [his] car window smashed, and was dragged out of [his] vehicle at gunpoint,” stating he was nonviolent and was only arriving at his job.
“I clearly identified myself as a U.S. citizen and an employee of the farm, yet federal agents ignored me, yelled conflicting orders, and then violently detained me. I was held in custody for three days without any charges, without a phone call, and without access to legal help. I was never told why I was arrested. I never received care to clean myself despite being covered in tear gas and OC spray for days,” Retes states.
A week following his release, Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, stated, “George Retes was arrested and has been released. He has not been charged. The US Attorney’s Office is reviewing his case, along with dozens of others, for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.”
DHS Alleges Child Labor Law Violations, No Evidence Provided
The Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which operates under DHS, stated that Glass House Farms is under investigations for child labor laws and they detained 14 minors on the property.
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.
Glass House refuted these claims and went on to stated that third-party Farm Labor Contractors were required by agreement to ensure that each of their employees must be age 21 and older and have valid work authorization.
“Federal authorities have reported that approximately eleven minors, ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old, were detained during the raids. While the identities of the alleged minors have not been disclosed, [Glass House] has been able to determine that, if those reports are true, none of them were Glass House employees,” the press release states.
Federal labor law and California labor law permit minors as young as 12 years old to work in agriculture. As required by California cannabis regulations, Glass House states it requires that no one under the age of 21 work in any facility, and that the third-party Farm Labor Contractors verify and ensure that all workers they hire and assign to the Company’s facilities are over the age of 21.
Glass House States Employees Make Above Minimum Wage
Following the raids and protests there were some unverified reports that employees of Glass House Farms were not earning minimum wage, alleging worker exploitation.
Glass House states that to their knowledge, none of the individuals working at their facilities were paid less than either the federal or California minimum wage.
“[Glass House] has always paid a competitive and legal wage for workers, including both its employees and any third-party workers,” the company stated.
For the first six months of 2025, labor contractors were paid an average net (of fees paid to the Farm Labor Companies) hourly rate of approximately $18.60 per hour. The net hourly rate was more than 12% higher than California’s minimum wage requirement (one of the highest of any state in the country) and 2.2x higher than the federal minimum wage, according to the press release.
Announced Employment Changes at Glass House Farms
Subsequent to July 10th, the farm stated it has terminated its relationship with the two Farm Labor Contractors providing workers and has revised Farm Labor Contractor agreements to ensure compliance processes are in accordance with the latest Company standards. The farm has also engaged new Farm Labor Contractors to provide workers.
Additionally, the farm has made significant changes to labor practices that are “above and beyond legal requirements.”
“Since July 10, 2025, the Company has hired leading compliance consultants Guidepost Services, led by former Director of ICE and Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers Wood, to assist the Company’s counsel with implementing best practices for determining employment eligibility for its employees and for ensuring eligibility of employees of contractors,” the press release states.
All employees and Farm labor are now E-verified and the underlying documents are reviewed by experts for validity and age gating.
Additionally, the farm has signed a Labor Peace Agreement for its license-holding entities (including the farm facilities) with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the largest labor organization in the United States. The agreement allows for the Teamsters to present to employees throughout the Company and the Company will cooperate with those efforts.
Related Articles
https://www.edhat.com/news/dhs-releases-more-information-on-ice-raid-at-central-coast-farms/
https://www.edhat.com/news/carpinteria-community-responds-to-ice-raids-with-emergency-city-council-actions/
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/update-ice-raids-glass-house-farms-in-carpinteria-with-national-guard-prompting-large-protest/
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Farm labor laws for minors does not apply in this instance. Legal residence status also doesn’t apply. You MUST be over 21 to even be on the premises of any kind of cannabis operation.
that isn’t why they were there. they were there to catch illegal immigrants. it’s not in their ball court to check ID for age requirements to be on site. that’s ludicrous.
Welcome to the world of law enforcement, KNein.
How does all that boot leather taste everyday? Do you use a mint flavor or something or just choke it down raw?
You have to be a seriously mentally defunct person to believe everything ICE and the DHS tells you. That, or you support it. Both are pretty bad scenarios.
If that were the case, strumpet and 1500 or so of his criminal gang would be incarcerated.
Glass House got rousted with a whole lot of illegal immigrant employees and minors on their property, plain and simple.
do you read the articles before you post? they were not employees. they only had 9 of theirs arrested. there was a 3rd party farm labor contractor involved. but if you read it, you’d know this. there is zero evidence of minors working there. is it illegal for a teen to accompany their adult family to a farm while they work? no. were the teens working? no. child labor? no. teens hardly count as that. i worked from 15 to 17 with no permit, for contractors locally. so what. a lot of teens do. the drum you’re choosing to beat is deflated as usual.
BASIC – “Weak argument. Laws are laws, you don’t get choose which ones seem right or wrong to you.”
BS. If you believed that you wouldn’t support a convicted felon (and proudly admitted sexual assaulter) who pardoned hundreds of violent criminals on Day 1 (many with past convictions for child molestation and rape) for no reason other than they supported him in his attempt to overthrow our democracy.
If you really believed that you’d be demanding justice for the Epstein victims, even if that meant exposing your rapist president for the POS that he is.
If you really believed that you’d also be demanding that all major corporations where undocumented workers have been found working be fired and prosecuted.
But no, crickets from you and the other pedophile lovers unless it comes to arresting tax paying immigrants who work harder and provide more for our country than you ever have or will.
Still absolute crickets from the DHS on the alleged “minors” who were “working” there. Nada.
You’d think if they had even an inkling to prove their claims, they’d be shouting it from every social media site they control.
And yet…. still zip. Zilch.
Don’t trust proven liars, folks. It’s never a good policy.
(L)ICE
BASIC – LOL! The LA Times article reaffirms the FACT that DHS has provided ZERO EVIDENCE to back these claims.
My God, do you seriously not know how to read? I mean, heck, I tease you about it, but I’m starting to think you are actually, bona fide illiterate.
“To date, neither Homeland Security nor the U.S. Department of Justice have announced any legal action regarding the alleged trafficking and exploitation of juveniles.”
“With regards to the government’s contention that it had found children working in cannabis, the company said: “while the identities of the alleged minors have not been disclosed, the company has been able to determine that, if those reports are true, none of them were Glass House employees.” California labor law allows children as young as 12 to work in agriculture, but workers must be 21 to work in cannabis.”
It’s sad that you think this is proof of child trafficking and abuse while the glaring evidence of Epstein and his merry band of rapists is worth hiding from the public.
How can you support protecting child rapists and call yourself a “doctor?” Disgusting.
Shoot, don’t take my word for it. See the LA Times article from yesterday…
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-04/glass-house-cannabis-major-changes-after-ice-raid
Sounds like Glass House is claiming ignorance? “Why no officer that bing is not mine, I don’t know how it got in my car or why my breath smells like weed “
As to the active investigation, no active investigations ever release any info. Nice try media.
Let the courts work it out.
After all the legal system has been used quite a bite over the last several years. We live in a Republic with laws and a court system.
As to guy fleeing authorities, sad, but he shouldn’t have been running from the authorities.
Shame on the activists for fear mongering and causing him to run.
And if he 2as a criminal illegal, shame on the media for warning him the authorities were coming.
Ok, let’s hear the far lefty comments who now say the system is corrupt.
Way to blame the dead victim, SBLETS.
actually i’m an independent voter (bc both parties are idiots of the highest order, especially the republicants currently)
you’re trolling big time here pal. every word you used is to troll/agitate others that disagree with you. must be lonely being you….
i personally know the owner of GHF. He didn’t hire illegal immigrants. he didn’t hire “children” even though those children are teens. He did no break any laws that DHS can prove. DHS hasn’t said a word to back up any claims, even to GHF directly. Yes there is and alwsy should be clarity with raids and immigration, but i suppose you’re a follower of fascism? it appears to many of us that’s the case here. Also, blaming someone who died during these illegal raids is abhorrent at best. we’ll all say the same about you and your family one day.
I do hope karma finds you, and soon. I’d be nice if it decided to never let you touch a keyboard again.
The long arm of the law in full effect.
If you think that, you have a greatly distorted view of law enforcement.
Don’t trust proven liars is good advice. Labor contractors, companies who use them and look the other way, groups that took over the mj industries by deceit and bullying/threatening are all proven liars. I won’t trust DHS but I won’t trust Glass House PR either.
Companies are just used to getting away with anything with no consequences.
The county has done everything they can to inundate Carpinteria with weed. The high school smells like weed. Just not ok.
Spoke to immigrant families that are blaming miscarriage on the odor, which is 100% not the case but thats some of the sentiment.
They just want the money.
There are a lot of kids that come here to work in the garden and construction that are 15 and 16. They are ready to work and they do it because that’s what they want to do and to send money home. There’s also trafficking of individuals being forced to do things they don’t want to do like in the massage places. I highly doubt anybody working at this weed farm was there against their will, because they want to work, posting pictures of people that were injured, trying to deflect the point of what they did wrong just doesn’t work anymore.
They haven’t released the name of the minors because they’re minors. Why would they do that. They haven’t even released the names of the three criminals that stab people on State Street. Focus on that.
Let me be clear, Glass House should absolutely face consequences for any labor laws violated, period, full stop.
I think the “minors” thing is dubious, because of a few reasons:
1) DHS is known for lying to the American people in order to justify ripping families apart.
2) ICE is known for lying to the American people in order to justify ripping families apart.
3) Every. Single. Person in this cursed, corrupt administration is is known for lying to the American people in order to justify ripping families apart.
4) NO ONE has yet provided any evidence (names are not needed here) that suggests these people were actually working at Glass House.
Focus on the fact that the government is abusing people and arresting them without cause. Read about the US citizen, military vet, security guard brutalized by these mercenary piece of s***. There are so many stories of US citizens being snatched off the street, brutalized, terrified because they are Latino or Latino in appearance.
Guaranteed, if they were doing this to “white” citizens you conservatives would be up in arms.
The weed thing–sure, it’s a failure and it was corrupt, but it’s nothing compared to what DHS is doing every day.
high schools smell like weed because a lot of teens smoke it, carry it. they have done so since the 70s…
odor from a plant doesn’t cause sickness or miscarriages that’s pure hype and BS. Take a science class FFS.
Teens do work without permits all of the time and always have. I worked from 15 to 17 under the able doing construction in town. I know dozens of other teens that did the same. its harmless. there are far bigger fish to fry. like the idiot in the oval office destroying our economy.
Ah yes, it’s the kids smoking that’s caused hundreds of complaints by the neighbors about the smell since the farms started up. Dude, you gotta drive through there someday. It’s not the smell of weed smoke. It’s industrial level air pollution. And the fact that you support teens working in a marijuana farm is just as disgusting as the scent down there. Would you have your teenager working there? Cmon man.
so now its air pollution? lol! ok, whatever. lets see, i recall about 20 years ago, broccoli, onion, and kale being grown there and people complained about that smell. They also complained that crop dusting happened constantly over the orchards. so that got replaced with greenhouses growing weed and they complain about that. You don’t seem to see the pattern? People will complain about anything they can, no matter what, and folks like you, like to complain the most to get attention and if there is nothing legitimate to complain about, they make things up. Just like you did right there. Air pollution.
How and where did I say i support teens working at weed farms? I noted that teens work without permits all over the country. You twisting everyone’s words around to make yourself on top is way more disgusting than me supposedly supporting teens working a job. I drive there frequently, weekly. Your point isn’t valid. At all. If my son or daughter wanted to work there, Sure! They pay well. My kid brother works in the industry in Oregon. He’s 18. He also makes close to 6 figures a year at 18. That’s way more than you haul in. Your turn….
“They haven’t even released the names of the three criminals that stab people on State Street.”
This is simply wrong. There are several news sources in SB, you should expand your reading.
edhat
keyt (I don’t bother with anymore)
noozhawk
ksby
Independent
These first come to mind, in no particular order.
BASIC – when all you have for retort are “TDS” and “ultra lefty,” then you prove to the world, once again, just how vacuous you are.
If you say racist things and support racist things, you’re a “racist.” If you continually call people “Nancy” here when they disagree with you, you’re a homophobe. If you continue to lie with every single comment you ever type here, then we’re going to call you what you are, a “liar.”
Dude, these aren’t insults in your case, they are factual descriptions of the who you are, as a person. These are you, BASIC. You.
I think Edhat Staff might have meant to use the word “rebut” in the headline, not “refute”
lets discuss this…DHS claims “children” yet they state a few teens aged 14-17 were located on site. Did not say they were actually working. Not once did they state that. However, just this week, DHS comes out with a new hiring policy and lowering the acceptance age to 18 for ICE.
Please tell me what the difference is between a 17yo and 18yo other than a calendar year.
There is no difference. So DHS, is hiring children for labor. Training our youths in the art of thuggery and how to be a coward. I personally see no difference, especially since I was working construction jobs from 15-17 and then at 18 and again at 19. There is no difference. They are all ‘kids’ at those ages.
Weak argument. Laws are laws, you don’t get choose which ones seem right or wrong to you.
Unless you’re a rethuglican. Then you can bypass laws and due process with impunity.
right…. says the guy supporting a convicted felon surrounded by other criminals. got it.
the majority of laws in the US are not followed. I’m sure you break several every day like the rest of us. get off your soapbox. you’re not above us
No, I don’t. I think you’re totally wrong. But maybe that’s just your perspective. I respect laws, and follow them. We all should. No soapbox, it’s just respecting the law and appreciating those who view similarly.
You ever jaywalk?
I don’t. I’m never in that much of a hurry, I have a kid (I don’t want him doing that), and it’s unsafe. I’m not “above” anyone either. Freedom of choice. I walk and ride bikes on the right side of the street too. Use my signals on my car as well. What else you wanna know? lol……
“The majority of laws in the U.S. are not followed”…BS
You do love to talk about yourself so I’ll indulge you with more questions!
1. You’re saying that “laws are laws and you don’t get to choose which ones seem right or wrong.”
Cool. Awesome. You assiduously follow all laws (BTW, I think you’re probably lying about that but whatever)
And you think everyone should follow all the laws.
YAY!!!!!!
And do you believe that the cops who have been assaulting people, snatching them off the street, and detaining them without probable cause, you know, what the law says the cops can do, because they look latino or are in the wrong place, should be charged criminally?
Because you know, like, it’s illegal to physically detain someone, pepper spray them, destroy their property, and throw them in a cell unless you can show a reason for it.
So these cops should be charged right?
Right?
Yes or No.
BASIC will run away from this one like a child from the dark. Not once, not ever, has he/she (who the hell knows with this liar anymore) ever stood up and backed their claims. Weak knees, no morals.
Yet you vote for felonious grifters. Got it.
A big “spotlight” is being put on Glass House and they don’t like it. Now they are blaming the contractors for hiring minors and saying “not OUR responsibility….we didn’t know”….of course they knew. Glass House, and other pot-growing businesses, know full well who is working for them directly and indirectly (via “contractors”). If this business, or any other business for that matter, does not want the law showing up at their door, be sure to hire the right way….not the wrong way. Pretending to be ignorant isn’t cutting it Glass House.
You believe the government–that’s so cute.
Makes sense. Follow the law, especially when you grow pot for profit.
Bends Knees – And yet you often seem to be pretending(?) you’re ignorant.
Where’s this phony sense of certainty about how Glass House feels, and what they “know full well” and all? Who the eff are you, their mom? STFU ya dork
Ultimately, Glass House is responsible for anyone who sets foot on their property to work. Regardless of what I believe to be true or “you” believe to be true, Glass House needs to totally and completely comply with employment laws. Everyone knows they were not in compliance and that’s why LE showed up en masse. Please look at this whole situation logically rather than emotionally.
All everyone knows is that you’re full of it.
Ah, the “everyone knows” card. Welp, I guess that settles it then, since LE never, ever makes a mistake, as everyone knows. And surely if someone is pounced upon by ICE, everyone knows they must be a heinous criminal here illegally for dirty deeds done cheap.
I honestly don’t know how you live with yourself, you abject coward.
i guess Glass House had a weak security liaison with Lt John Thayer, former SBPD and current Bowl security director
I’ve heard gossip around Thayer for well over 30 years. Let it go. Or support the stories. I don’t have a pick in this race, I’m just sick of the gossip.
Glass House is responsible for subcontractors hiring policy’s and actions. Following the ABC test, these people where by default employees of glass House
100%. You don’t get an “I didn’t know” excuse for illegal employment practices whether you’re a multimillion dollar pot corporation or a mom and pop business selling donuts. Laws.
And yet both of you vote for felonious grifters. Cognitive dissonance much?