Federal Show of Force
Prompts Real Community Response
Following Militarized Operations on July 10,
Community Rallies to Support Immigrants
By Ryan P. Cruz | July 16, 2025
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Smoke and Mirrors: Fallout from Federal Raids at Glass House Farms.
The two coordinated federal raids of Glass House Farms cannabis facilities in Carpinteria and Camarillo provoked a strong response from nonprofit organizations, community members, politicians, and national media all looking for answers: What prompted the raids? Who was the target? Was it immigration enforcement? Cannabis related? Or investigations into child labor and human trafficking?
In the week since, some of the answers themselves have prompted even more questions, blurring the line between what’s real and rumor. Meanwhile, here on the Central Coast, hundreds of families are separated and a new wave of community support has sprouted to help these families with legal support, food supplies, and financial assistance.
There were no official announcements from the federal government the day of the raids. Federal agencies did not immediately respond to questions from the media that morning. Since ICE, Homeland Security, and Border Patrol officers were confirmed to be on scene, local organizations such as 805UndocuFund were certain that the operation was targeting immigrant workers.
The government’s first official acknowledgment of the raids came by way of a post on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) X account, which was a reply to a video from Camarillo posted by Governor Gavin Newsom showing “kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields.”
DHS’s response alluded to the government’s reasoning for the operations: “Why are there children working at a marijuana facility, Gavin?”
Later that night, Border Patrol’s first official reference to the two raids came via X, in a post offering $50,000 for information regarding an individual who appeared to pull a gun at the protest outside the facility in Camarillo.
By the next morning, the two posts had been spread widely, and the federal government’s official stance became clear in the DHS press release issued on July 11: “ICE and CBP Law Enforcement Dodge Literal Bullets from Rioters While Rescuing at Least 10 Migrant Children During Operations at Two Marijuana Grow Sites in California.”
In the press release, DHS claimed there were a total of 200 arrests at both sites, along with 10 minors who were found in Camarillo. A photo of the 10 teenagers, faces blurred, sitting in front of five masked agents, was published on the government website. DHS said the operations were part of an investigation into immigration and potential child labor violations, but no further details were provided.
On July 12, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem updated the number, posting on X that the government arrested 319 undocumented workers, and boasting that it was “one of the largest operations since President Trump took office.”
Since July 13, DHS has issued five more press releases, raising the official count of workers arrested to 361 in total, including 14 minors. The subsequent press releases alleged some of those arrested were violent criminals, referred to the protestors as “rioters,” and accused U.S. Congressmember Salud Carbajal — who was denied access at the scene in Carpinteria — of doxxing an ICE agent who was allegedly later injured.
The federal government’s representation of events stands in stark contrast to the firsthand descriptions given by reporters, nonprofit representatives, and local government officials at the scene of the July 10 operations. Julia Mayer, a Carpinteria city councilmember who was at Glass House Farms that day, posted on social media shortly after: “This is overkill. Flash-bang grenades at elected officials, teachers, moms, dads. I’m at a loss just purely on the waste of money to terrorize a tiny community of people trying to work and live.”
Nonprofit advocates have spread the stories of Jaime Alanís — a worker at Glass House Farms in Camarillo who died after falling off a 30-foot-high greenhouse during the chaos of the raid — and Jonathan Anthony Caravello, a CSU Channel Islands professor who was detained for allegedly throwing a tear gas canister back at agents at the Camarillo protest. Those who were on scene in Carpinteria said protesters outside on the road were angry but peaceful. Of the 10 workers reportedly arrested in Carpinteria, none were said to be minors.
Glass House Farms stated on its official social media account that staff “fully complied with agent search warrants,” and that the company has “never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors.” No cannabis products were taken from the scene.
Glass House Cofounder and President Graham Farrar wrote in a statement on X: “Know there are lots of questions, we have a lot of them, too. As we get more information, we will update.”
Beatriz Basurto, the co-organizer of the 805 Immigrant Coalition Rapid Response Hotline, has been working nonstop with her team of volunteer dispatchers to contact families and locate the people taken in the two raids. She says that the day after the operations in Camarillo and Carpinteria, their hotline received 1,258 calls from family members looking for help. Some have still not been able to make contact.
She says local immigrant detention centers are over capacity, and people are being sent to Calexico, Arizona, or Alabama, far away from the lawyers their families can arrange. She’s heard from detained immigrants who’ve had their jackets taken from them, been deprived of medical attention, or fed water with salt in order to coerce them to sign deportation paperwork.
Basurto said some of those taken into custody — as many as five of those taken in Carpinteria — are green card holders and should never have been detained in the first place.
Community organizers have been out in full force in response to the raids. The 805UndocuFund’s Emergency Assistance Fund has raised nearly $100,000, and a growing list of GoFundMe pages is being updated daily on the 805 Immigrant Coalition’s social media pages.
“It’s been beautiful to see that,” Basurto said. “Right now, the community is on edge. In a time of trauma, terror, and unknown, this is where the community has rallied to bring all this support.”
There are local creatives hosting weekend pop-ups to help raise money, community volunteers patrolling neighborhoods to report ICE activity, and a revived sense of community and empathy toward working immigrants. Public protests were held in Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, and Goleta. Nonprofits such as Immigrant Legal Defense Center, Carpinteria Immigrant Rights Coalition, and La Casa de la Raza have been on the ground every day working with families firsthand.
Alex Ramirez of Desmadre Media — who has been selling “No One Is Illegal on Stolen Land” merch with 100 percent of proceeds to the 805 Immigrant Coalition — was re-energized by seeing the fear and pain caused by the July 10 raids. Within four hours, he put a call out to the community and loaded a trailer full of supplies for families in Carpinteria.
“Our local community really showed up and made a difference, even if it was just for a day,” he later wrote on Instagram. “This is what they don’t want. They don’t want us to come together. They want us to be divided. When we do this, these are acts of resistance. We are rebelling. That makes them scared.”
Many questions are yet to be answered, and with ICE activity occurring every week (ICE was spotted arresting one person in Santa Barbara early on July 15), the true impact of the increased immigration enforcement is palpable in the community. The St. Joseph’s Festival in Carpinteria, usually a hive of activity for the town’s Latino community, was noticeably emptier this year. There are now similar worries about Santa Barbara’s upcoming Fiesta Week, following the recent announcement that the Fiesta Carnival de Los Niños would be canceled due to “recent uncertainties in the community,” and to “assure the safety of the kids.”
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