By Jorge Mercado Friday, July 11th, 2025

The fallout from the federal agent’s raid of Glass House Farms’ operations in both Carpinteria and Camarillo is still being felt, with approximately 200 people across both sites being arrested, the Department of Homeland Security announced on July 11.

Federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security agents stormed both Glass House farms at the same time on July 10. These raids drew hundreds of protesters with the majority calling for the federal agents to leave the area without detaining any workers.

In an X post on July 11, Glass House Brands said “Yesterday (July 10), we received immigration and naturalization warrants. As per the law, we verified that the warrants were valid and we complied.”

Glass House added that they are assisting workers who were detained and providing them with legal representation.

DHS said that among the approximately 200 arrests, 10 undocumented minors were found at the Camarillo farm, eight of them unaccompanied and that Glass House is now under investigation for child labor violations.

In response, Glass House said that the company “has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has not never employed minors.”

Glass House Co-founder and President Graham Farrar said on X that the company’s team has been on-site and is “focused on taking care of our people and our plants.”  

Glass House Farms, which trades on a Canadian stock exchange, saw its stock price dip below $7 on July 10, with shares falling 12.6%. Shares were up 1.6% on July 11, with the price closing at $6.91.

In the crowd at the Carpinteria facility was U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara. After talking with the owner of the Carpinteria location, Carbajal said 10 people were detained.

Asked about the political implications of ICE raiding a Toronto-exchange listed company in the cannabis business at a time when relations with Canada are tense, U.S. Rep Salud Carbajal told the Business Times, “I wouldn’t put it past them.”

He said the pattern of raids across California represents a “policy based on stupidity.” Targeting a single employer for military action, he said, is “improper,” and he said it represents “an immigration system run amok.”

He said focusing on California is blatantly political. “They are targeting a blue state,” he said.

Along with hundreds of arrests, the Camarillo raid was also more deadly.

At least one farmworker is confirmed to have died during the raid with several others being injured, United Farm Workers said on July 11.

Jamie Alanis was taken off life support and died on July 11 after he fell 30 feet from a roof as he was being chased by ICE agents, according to his family in a GoFundMe. 

The Associated Press added that relatives of Alanis said he called his wife in Mexico during the raid to tell her immigration agents had arrived.

“We are once again witnessing senseless, dehumanizing, militaristic raids on farms here in the unincorporated areas of Ventura County,” Martita Martinez-Bravo, executive director of nonprofit Friends of Fieldworkers, told the Business Times on July 10.

“They are inflicting unnecessary trauma on our farmworkers and our entire community,” Martinez-Bravo, who also sits on the Camarillo City Council, said.

“At Friends of Fieldworkers, it’s just been constant calls all day,” she said. “Families are just deeply terrified.”

The city of Carpinteria held a special city council meeting on July 10 in which hundreds of citizens packed the room and shared their fears and grief. The meeting had been scheduled before the events of July 10 took place.

“No one prepares for their family to be ripped apart. This is inhumane, these attacks are militarized and we are here today, looking at you as our elected leaders, to protect the community you serve,” Ian Vega, associate organizing director of Future Leaders of America and a Carpinterian citizen, said during the meeting.

“This is not just a Latino issue, this is a human rights issue.”

Carpinteria’s City Council voted unanimously approved three motions at the special meeting, including a proclamation detailing the city’s position on ICE activity, the immediate allocation of $10,000 from the city’s general fund to support residents affected by immigration enforcement and a direction to city staff to create an Ad Hoc Committee to come up with more ideas to bring to future meetings.

Ventura County leaders are also taking action. 

Congresswoman Julia Brownley, D-Ventura, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons demanding answers about recent IE activity.

“The farmworkers detained in these raids are clearly in the United States to fill jobs that employers cannot otherwise fill,” said Congresswoman Brownley. “Their undocumented status is not by choice, but a direct result of Congress’ ongoing failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform that would allow a sufficient number of workers into the country and provide a viable pathway to citizenship. Instead of working to build this pathway, the government is spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to deport, in such a cruel and callous way, the exact individuals who would be covered by a comprehensive immigration reform package. Congress refuses to take up comprehensive immigration reform for purely partisan reasons.”

Local response groups also held an emergency press conference on July 11 outside Oxnard City Hall. Several protests also occurred in Ventura County on July 11.

There is a planned “No ICE in Carpinteria” protest scheduled for July 12.