On July 10, 2026, hundreds of heavily armed ICE agents conducted raids on two Glass House Farms facilities, the largest legal cannabis brand in California, located in Camarillo and Carpinteria. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported the detention of 14 minors and 361 adults during these operations.

The raids unfolded on a sunny morning in Camarillo, about an hour north of Los Angeles, where immigration agents arrived equipped with face masks, guns, chemical munitions, and armored tactical vehicles, blocking access along roads lined with produce fields. Santiago*, an undocumented Mexican farmworker who had been employed at the greenhouse for three weeks, witnessed the agents' arrival after 10 a.m. Around 12:50 p.m., he threw a smoking tear gas canister back over the agents’ heads, an act that became a focal point in a trial months later.

The events of that day irreversibly changed the lives of an army veteran, a farmworker, and a professor. The raids have been described by Genevieve Flores-Haro, associate director of the Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project, as a “litmus test for what the federal government could get away with,” noting that authorities “pushed the line further and further.” This nonprofit supports Indigenous Mexican families affected by the raids.

In contrast, Lauren Bis, an ICE spokesperson, stated that immigration officers were “assaulted by rioters” and had to dodge bullets to protect children during the Camarillo protests, referring to a suspected gunman accused of firing at agents.

Among those affected was a philosophy lecturer at California State University, Channel Islands, who had been active in protesting Israel’s assault on Gaza and had been warning residents about ICE operations prior to the raids.

Legal expert Joanna Schwartz, a UCLA law professor, noted that the Supreme Court has spent decades narrowing a 1971 ruling that recognized an implied constitutional right to sue individual federal agents, a context relevant to ongoing legal proceedings stemming from the raids.

These raids highlight the tensions and complexities surrounding immigration enforcement and its impact on communities in California.

*Name changed for privacy.

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