By Steve Gorman and Leah Douglas
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Federal agents conducted immigration enforcement raids on Thursday on state-licensed marijuana nurseries in an agricultural region of coastal Southern California, where they were confronted by throngs of angry protesters.
As word and video images of the raids spread on social media, dozens of migrant-rights activists converged on the area in vehicles leading to face-offs with federal agents in the middle of rural roadways, according to the Santa Barbara Independent, Los Angeles Times and other news media.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms – one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from L.A.
Glass House Farms, which bills itself as one of the “fastest-growing vertically integrated cannabis companies in the U.S.,” said on X that its greenhouse sites “were visited today by ICE officials,” adding, “The company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary.”
An attorney representing clients who work at Glass House said both of the company’s nurseries had been previously visited by ICE in June. National Guard troops were with ICE when they arrived at the property Thursday morning.
TEAR GAS
One local television station reported that about 100 farmworkers were detained in the immigration sweep prior to the protests, and that tear gas was fired at crowds during an encounter with federal agents.
Local TV footage from the scene of one standoff showed protesters yelling and gesturing angrily at armed, uniformed federal agents wearing helmets and face masks blocking traffic with yellow crime-scene tape strung across the road.
Asked for information or comment on the situation, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, parent agency of ICE, replied by email: “DHS law enforcement is executing a warrant at a marijuana facility. Our brave officers will continue to enforce the law.”
In Carpinteria, U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal, a California Democrat, said he was denied access to the scene of the raid while seeking to exercise his oversight authority as a member of Congress, and that company officials later told him 10 workers were taken into custody at that location.
More than 50 ICE agents took part in the operation there, with crowd-control munitions deployed against members of the crowd in a “militarized raid targeting farm workers,” Carbajal said on X.
One of two city council members who were also present fell and injured her arm in a fracas between protesters and law enforcement, the Independent reported.
At a separate clash in Camarillo, a man running from federal agents appeared to open fire with a handgun in the direction of authorities as they lobbed smoke canisters at protesters, video footage from Los Angeles TV station KABC-TV showed.
SHIFTING POSITION
The Trump administration has shifted its position several times in recent weeks on whether farmworkers will be subject to its campaign to deport all immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Trump on June 14 ordered ICE to halt enforcement activities on farms, but the agency reversed that position days later. On July 3, Trump said he was willing to let migrant workers stay in the country if farmers can “vouch” for them. Days later Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be “no amnesty” for farmworkers from deportation.
About half of U.S. farmworkers are in the country illegally, according to government estimates. The farm sector has warned that mass deportation of agricultural workers would cripple the nation’s food supply chain.
Raids on some California farms in June left crops unharvested and farmworkers and operators fearful of further enforcement activity.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
