Immigration raid at hashish farm in Ventura County sparks chaotic protest

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The gang outdoors Glass Home Farms in Camarillo within the wake of Thursday’s chaotic immigration sweep was an odd combine.

There have been vocal protesters hurling insults and typically water bottles at federal brokers, and there have been anxious family and friends of those that work at Glass Home, an enormous hashish operation. Then there have been curious bystanders like Mike Elliott, a Camarillo resident who voted for President Trump and stopped to see what was taking place, saying he wished to bear witness. Additionally readily available was Oxnard native Christina Muñoz, who stated she introduced her 2-year-old son, 5-month-old daughter and her mother in hopes of getting a glimpse of her husband, a member of the Nationwide Guard whom she hadn’t seen in 30 days.

Federal brokers raided two Glass Home Farms websites on Thursday, stated Maria Navarro, an Oxnard coverage advocate for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Financial system (CAUSE). The group was alerted at 10:20 a.m. that sweeps had been taking place at each California places of the corporate, in Carpinteria and Camarillo.

Federal officers hold a line against protesters opposing immigration enforcement along Laguna Road

She hurried to the Camarillo website, the place she stumbled on a tense scene, with protesters gathering and relations of staff attempting to choose up their family members. However federal brokers had already closed off entry to the worksite. Increasingly more individuals arrived, and Navarro stated activists had been attempting to forestall vans stuffed with detainees from leaving.

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‘Piled on by a number of brokers unexpectedly’

On the east entrance to the Camarillo facility, amid lush fields of blooming bush beans, the motion began about 10 a.m. when federal brokers entered the ability. Protesters and nervous household started arriving quickly afterward, and by 2:30 p.m., a line of about 30 brokers, together with Nationwide Guard members, was barricading close by Laguna Street.

Protestors confront federal agents who form a line

The rising crowd was stored not less than 1 / 4 of a mile away from the ability. Protesters stated that some individuals among the many crowd had been detained. Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested, in accordance with activist Angelmarie Taylor, who stated she was one in all his college students and had accompanied him to the protest.

Taylor claimed Caravello was arrested as he tried to assist a person in a wheelchair when brokers had been pushing the group to maneuver again.

She stated he and one other particular person “had been piled on by a number of brokers unexpectedly” earlier than being taken behind a line of brokers to the place a number of autos stood, “and we don’t know now the place they’re.”

Because the sweep was underway, 24-year-old Cesar Ortiz spoke to a Occasions photographer outdoors Glass Home Farms.

He stated he had a brother inside the ability who had solely begun working there every week in the past.

“They’re taking everybody and the reality is it’s not proper as a result of these individuals come to work, wrestle daily, to earn for bread daily.

“There aren’t any narcos right here,” he stated, “nobody is armed right here and so they come absolutely armed, stuffed with army personnel.”

Ortiz stated he had been in communication together with his brother, who he feared could be deported. He stated authorities had his brother in a container. Folks “are [choking] in there with the air, with out air-conditioned air.”

He additionally had a message for Trump: “All of us have a proper to return right here and work. Right here, all of us have a dream, we’ve to present it our all.”

two women crouch down in a fields with an sign that reads ICE OUT

Worksite is run by ‘an ex-cop who performs by the foundations’

Marc Cohodes, an investor and famed short-seller who has invested in Glass Home, known as the raid “past outrageous.” He added that Glass Home is “the most important hashish cultivator on the planet” and “a extremely regulated enterprise absolutely licensed by the state of California. It’s run by a man named Kyle Kazan, who’s an ex-cop who performs by the foundations and does issues by the ebook.” Kazan, he added, can also be a supporter of Trump.

Glass Home Farms posted a press release on X on Thursday saying that the corporate had been “visited right this moment by ICE officers” and “absolutely complied with agent search warrants.” The assertion stated nothing else, besides so as to add that the corporate would “present additional updates if obligatory.”

Ambulances had been seen going out and in of the Camarillo facility, and Cohodes stated as many as 14 individuals had been injured within the motion and brought to hospitals.

Because the protest heated up, some members of the group shouted obscenities at brokers. When gasoline canisters had been fired, a couple of hurled water bottles earlier than operating away from the fumes. One girl on a megaphone pleaded with the officers to go away their posts and be a part of the protesters so that they may very well be on the fitting aspect of historical past.

However off to the aspect, Ricardo Mojica, a tall, silver-haired grandfather, quietly tried to speak to brokers to seek out out what was taking place together with his son, who labored inside.

Mojica stated his 31-year-old son “has no legal information, he has by no means been arrested and was born simply six miles from right here at St. John’s Hospital. He’s the daddy of my granddaughter, and I haven’t heard something from him since this morning.”

Mojica pointed to one of many Border Patrol guards and stated, ‘He instructed me my son was being detained, however then his accomplice instructed him to not speak to me. I simply need to know why he’s being held.”

Guardsman is at raid, however ‘his household wants him’

Round 4:30 p.m. Oxnard native Christina Muñoz held her 2-year-old son on her hip as she strained to catch a glimpse of her husband, Christopher, a Nationwide Guardsman who she heard had been deployed that day from Los Angeles to the manufacturing unit raid. Her mom stood close by holding Christina’s toddler daughter.

“I haven’t seen him for 30 days,” Muñoz stated, “and I hoped I may see him right here.”

She and her kids have been staying along with her household in Oxnard since her husband was deployed.

“We thought it might be for only a few days,” she stated, “however we didn’t see him for Father’s Day or the Fourth of July. We had no thought it might final this lengthy.”

“He’s wanted at dwelling,” Muñoz’s mom stated, as she bounced the child in her arms. “His household wants him.”

Trump ‘was going to go after the dangerous guys’

Off to the aspect of the protesters, David Elliott stood watching the scene with a beer in a single hand and a small six-pack cooler within the different.

“I’m out of beer,” he joked. The Camarillo resident stated he had been heading for the seaside, “however I acquired caught up in all of the site visitors and I assumed, ‘You recognize what? I’m going to hang around right here and see what occurs.’”

Elliott stated he helps regulation enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he voted for Donald Trump to be president, however he doesn’t like what’s taking place now with the immigration sweeps.

“I voted for Trump as a result of he stated he was going to go after the dangerous guys, and I do know they’re there, however I don’t like what they’re doing now …. going after individuals at Residence Depot or farmworkers within the fields.

“These are hardworking individuals — my gardener and his crew began working for my dad and mom 20 years in the past and now they work for me, and so they’re unlawful; they’re not dangerous individuals, they’re like household, and a variety of us rely upon the work they do.

“I voted for Trump to scrub out the dangerous guys first after which begin engaged on a system to get the farmworkers and gardeners, however there’s acquired to be a greater approach. There must be a method to combine them into our system as a result of they work more durable than anybody I do know.”

Freelance photographer Julie Leopo contributed to this report.