ICE agents descended on a cannabis farm. The lives of an army vet, a farmworker and professor changed forever

Summary

Raids on the Glass House Farms in California became a ‘litmus test’ for how much violence agents could inflict during Trump’s deportation campaign O n a sunny morning last July, hundreds of heavily armed immigration agents in camouflage stormed a greenhouse complex in Camarillo, an hour north of Los Angeles . A year later, the three men are still rebuilding their lives. “Now when I see a car with dark windows, I worry,” Santiago said. “Everything has changed.” The capstone to aggressive immigration sweeps in Los Angeles , the Glass House raids epitomized the high-profile, violent tactics that defined the first year of Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Local leaders say enforcement then pivoted to a quieter, systemic approach of targeted arrests at homes, local jails and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE (immigration enforcement agency)) appointments, echoing national trends. But fresh funding, a recent surge in arrests and two ICE-involved killings last month have raised the specter of renewed brutality. Families like Santiago’s struggle to heal amid ongoing ICE arrests. While pro-immigrant networks have swelled with volunteers, activists such as Caravello say they face a federal intimidation campaign , from pre-dawn arrests and raids on organizers’ homes to ICE agents car ramming community patrollers. In response to queries, DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) did not comment on the men’s experiences. She said the investigation into immigration and child labor violations is ongoing. Internal navy correspondence obtained through a record request shows that immigration agents used the base as a “staging area” for the operations and temporarily held around 275 workers there. You have to operate from a place of power.” Nationwide, hundreds of protesters have been arrested for impeding or assaulting immigration officers, but prosecutors have struggled to secure convictions .