The coastal pot operation that was raided by a large pressure of federal immigration brokers final week is the topic of a state investigation into unlawful baby labor, state officers stated Monday.
Officers with the state Division of Hashish Management stated they’ve launched “an lively investigation” after receiving a criticism that Glass Home, one of many state’s largest authorized hashish firms, had employed minors. The corporate has services in Camarillo and Carpinteria, Calif.; it’s unclear the place the criticism was directed.
In an announcement, state officers stated that they had carried out a website go to at Glass Home in Could and located no violations. However later that month, the division acquired a criticism and opened the investigation.
“The employment of people underneath the age of 21 within the hashish business is strictly unlawful, a critical matter, and isn’t tolerated,” the assertion stated. “We encourage anybody with details about baby labor or trafficking at any facility to instantly contact the Division.”
Glass Home didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Monday. However in an announcement posted to X final week, the corporate stated it “doesn’t and has by no means employed minors.”
Federal officers raided the corporate’s operations in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing marketing campaign in opposition to undocumented immigrants in California. Officers stated they arrested 361 folks on the two websites, together with “at the very least 14 migrant kids.”
In an announcement, the Division of Homeland Safety stated it had “rescued” the youngsters “from potential exploitation, compelled labor and human trafficking.” Division officers stated 10 of the youngsters, who had been unaccompanied minors, had been transferred to the custody of the Division of Well being and Human Companies.
The Thursday raid introduced chaos, panic and protests to the agricultural space of the Central Coast. Brokers fanned out throughout the corporate’s greenhouses, and staff fled in panic, hiding in fridges, containers, automotive trunks and on the greenhouse roofs. One employee, Jaime Alanis Garcia, 57, died after he fell three tales attempting to evade brokers.
In the meantime, protesters and members of the family of staff squared off on the firm gates in opposition to federal brokers, who deployed tear fuel and less-than-lethal bullets.
Amongst these arrested, in keeping with the Division of Homeland Safety, had been “violent and harmful felony unlawful aliens convicted of rape, baby molestation and kidnapping.” The division launched the names of 10 individuals who had been charged with crimes similar to indecent publicity, felony possession of a firearm and possession with intent to promote narcotics.
Additionally arrested final week was Cal State Channel Islands professor Jonathan Anthony Caravello, 37, who was accused of impeding or assaulting legislation enforcement. Caravello appeared in federal court docket in Los Angeles on Monday, the place he posted bond and was launched with an ankle monitor.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem stated the operation had come to the federal government’s consideration partially due to considerations about attainable baby labor.
“We went there as a result of we knew, particularly from casework we had constructed for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was kids there that might be trafficked, being exploited, that there was people there concerned in felony exercise,” Noem informed reporters throughout a weekend look in Florida.
Glass Home is without doubt one of the largest authorized hashish operations in California, the most important taxpayer in Ventura County and one of many space’s largest employers. One among its founders, Kyle Kazan, is a former Torrance police officer.
Court docket filings present a lot of Glass Home’s staff really work for a Camarillo labor contractor. The labor contractor and the corporate have been accused of labor legislation violations in recent times, together with failure to pay additional time or give meal breaks. Glass Home has disputed the fees, levied in civil fits in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, that are nonetheless pending in court docket.
An lawyer whose agency represents some Glass Home staff stated Monday that his agency can be investigating baby labor violations, based mostly “on our personal impartial investigation and knowledge we’ve obtained.”
The lawyer, Daniel Hyun, additionally stated one in all his circumstances needed to be continued when the lead shopper, Gerardo Melendez, was picked up by immigration brokers in March and put in immigration detention, making it not possible for him to take part within the go well with.
An lawyer on the Immigrant Defenders Legislation Heart, Yliana Johansen-Mendez, stated her workplace had interviewed a few of the kids who had been detained as a part of the raid.
She didn’t present particulars about how the minors had gotten employed or how lengthy that they had lived and labored in Ventura. She stated all the youngsters now face deportation. Even these kids who’ve members of the family close by, she stated, most likely will be unable to reunite with them simply.
“It’s almost not possible for undocumented members of the family to get kids out of ORR [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] to reunite,” she stated, including that underneath the Trump administration, the federal government has been pushing to deport kids who in years previous could have been granted residency.
Instances employees author Sandra McDonald contributed to this report.
