By Mike Harris Friday, June 27th, 2025

Ventura County officials, community leaders and clergy members gathered June 27 to decry federal immigration raids and to offer support to undocumented farmworkers facing possible arrest.

“We’re coming together to stand in support of the human rights of immigrants,” Martita Martinez-Bravo, the executive director of Friends of Fieldworkers, told the Business Times at the Stand in Solidarity news conference at the Ventura County Government Center.

“I really hope that we can get information to the community as to the negative impact these harsh immigration raids are having on schools, local businesses, parishes and truly the entire community,” said Martinez-Bravo, who is also a Camarillo city council member.

President Donald Trump’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department conducted a series of raids on June 10 targeting farms and packing facilities in Oxnard and Camarillo, arresting about 40 suspected undocumented workers.

“Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to safeguard public safety, national security and economic stability,” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a June 17 statement.

ICE is part of DHS.

Speaker after speaker at the solidarity news conference emphasized how fearful the ICE raids have made the Latino immigrant community in Ventura County.

“I stand with our immigrants brothers and sisters who are living in fear, especially those who work in the fields and harvest our food,” said Rev. Tom Elewaut, pastor of Mission Basilica San Buenaventura.

Farmworker advocates say they are the backbone of Ventura County’s $2 billion agriculture industry.

Elewaut and others at the event called on the ICE raids to stop.

“We urge federal authorities to cease these broad, fear-inducing enforcement tactics,” Elewaut said.

Martinez-Bravo said that what is needed “is fair, humane, comprehensive immigration reform.”

Thousand Oaks Mayor David Newman agreed.

“Families who have been here for decades are being torn apart,” he said.

“What they need is not pariah status, but a fair and workable pathway to full citizenship,” he said.

Ventura County Supervisor Vianey Lopez called on state and federal officials to engage in a dialogue “demonstrating that leaders from all side of the political spectrum are ready to stand together for long-term, practical solutions.”

Newman said that in the meantime, “to anyone feeling fear or uncertainty today, we say we are with you.”