Two raids targeting migrants at California cannabis farms end with five people in hospital, one in critical condition

Californians know Camarillo as a northern suburban city an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, a work and residential area for thousands of people. Its most famous landmark is its enormous outlet malls, but it’s also home to California State University due to its proximity to the Channel Islands, a prime location for ocean studies—and a plantation site with numerous farms. In fact, Camarillo is home to one of the world’s largest cannabis farms—legal in California— with almost 50 hectares of land, called Glass House Farms. The company has another location about 35 miles north, in the city of Carpinteria, very close to Santa Barbara. On Thursday morning, Immigration and Border Protection (ICE) agents carried out brutal raids against workers at both locations.

Chaos and fear were present throughout the day, and Camarillo was the epicenter. It began around 10:00 a.m., and things quickly escalated. To arrest the immigrants, agents deployed throughout the plantations and along access roads to the facilities fired high-powered tear gas, injuring 14 people. Four were treated by ambulances on the spot and five more required hospitalization.

The United Farm Workers Union said that one worker fell several stories from a greenhouse and sustained life-threatening injuries. He broke his neck and is on a ventilator, the sources reported.

Rodney Scott, the CBP Commissioner appointed by Donald Trump, stated on X that they had found “10 juveniles” in the facility, all of them illegal immigrants, and eight of them unaccompanied. The facility, he said, is “now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom’s California.” Governor Gavin Newsom responded: “Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields. Trump calls me ”Newscum" - but he’s the real scum."

ICE spent the entire day at the facility. By 2:00 p.m., agents, including some members of the National Guard sent by President Donald Trump despite Governor Newsom’s refusal, had formed a barrier preventing all access. When night fell, workers and ICE personnel were still at the plantation, as were hundreds of people protesting outside. Some residents reported that, although they were citizens and showed their documents to the agents, they were still detained and taken to a local facility. After getting their ID checked, they were allowed to leave. Some of the workers were not able to return to their cars and their homes until after 7:00 p.m.

Some witnesses told local news outlets that they were simply driving through the area when they were detained. Many of the workers’ relatives went to the farms to check on their families, and some activists even tried to block the trucks taking away the workers in Camarillo. Family members arrived in the morning and throughout the day to find out if their children, partners or siblings were still there or had been arrested, because many of the detainees had lost their phones or had had them confiscated.

A local resident named Darria Rosalez told KTLA news that she had gone to the fields to find her cousin, a farmworker. “They’ve already taken him,” she stated, looking serious and angry. “It’s very sad. I was back there when they arrived. No one was doing anything wrong. They were just working in the fields.” Another woman, Dalia Perez, explained to the local Ventura newspaper that her mother, a farmworker who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, had been taken away. She felt “angry, desperate”: “She hasn’t done anything wrong, just worked for us and for a better life.”

The protests were so large that even some observers were arrested, such as a philosophy professor at CalState University. An activist, a student of the professor, told the Los Angeles Times that he was arrested when he tried to help a man in a wheelchair who had been shoved by officers.

Vianey Lopez, supervisor of Ventura’s Fifth District, the county to which Camarillo belongs, stated that it was “a very unfortunate situation,” acknowledging that there were “hundreds of people” at the scene and that it was impossible to know how many had been detained. “This is an ongoing situation that is very concerning for the safety of those who are protesting with anger and disappointment over what is happening to the hardworking people of our community.”

Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, assigned to Los Angeles, wrote in X: “Federal agents are executing a search warrant at this marijuana farm,” alongside several local news images. “Agents have already arrested several individuals for impeding this operation and will continue to make arrests. Don’t interfere. You will be arrested and charged with a federal offense.” Essayli also sought information—offering a $50,000 reward—about a man who fired a gun during the Camarillo raids.

The farm’s facilities remained closed on Friday. The number of detainees is currently unknown, but some local television stations estimate as many as 100.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition