The Los Angeles Times and the media have made fools of themselves once again. This time, they seem to be lying to protect slavery and child exploitation.
Let’s see what they are saying.
Time to Defend Slave Labor
According to the L.A. Times:
The crowd outside Glass House Farms in Camarillo in the wake of Thursday’s chaotic immigration sweep was a strange mix.
There were vocal protesters hurling insults and sometimes water bottles at federal agents, and there were anxious friends and family of those who work at Glass House, a huge cannabis operation. Then there were curious bystanders like Mike Elliott, a Camarillo resident who voted for President Trump and stopped to see what was happening, saying he wanted to bear witness. Also on hand was Oxnard native Christina Muñoz, who said she brought her 2-year-old son, 5-month-old daughter and her mom in hopes of getting a glimpse of her husband, a member of the National Guard whom she hadn’t seen in 30 days.
Federal agents raided two Glass House Farms sites on Thursday, said Maria Navarro, an Oxnard policy advocate for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE). The organization was alerted at 10:20 a.m. that sweeps were happening at both California locations of the company, in Carpinteria and Camarillo.
She hurried to the Camarillo site, where she came upon a tense scene, with protesters gathering and family members of workers trying to pick up their loved ones. But federal agents had already closed off access to the worksite. More and more people arrived, and Navarro said activists were trying to prevent trucks full of detainees from leaving.
At the east entrance to the Camarillo facility, amid lush fields of blooming bush beans, the action started about 10 a.m. when federal agents entered the facility. Protesters and worried family began arriving soon afterward, and by 2:30 p.m., a line of about 30 agents, including National Guard members, was barricading nearby Laguna Road.
The growing crowd was kept at least a quarter of a mile away from the facility. Protesters said that some people among the crowd had been detained. Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested, according to activist Angelmarie Taylor, who said she was one of his students and had accompanied him to the protest.
Taylor claimed Caravello was arrested as he tried to help a man in a wheelchair when agents were pushing the crowd to move back.
She said he and another individual “were piled on by multiple agents all at once” before being taken behind a line of agents to where several vehicles stood, “and we have no idea now where they are.”
As the sweep was underway, 24-year-old Cesar Ortiz spoke to a Times photographer outside Glass House Farms.
He said he had a brother inside the facility who had only begun working there a week ago.
“They are taking everyone and the truth is it’s not right because these people come to work, struggle every day, to earn for bread every day.
“There are no narcos here,” he said, “no one is armed here and they come fully armed, full of military personnel.”
Ortiz said he had been in communication with his brother, who he feared would be deported. He said authorities had his brother in a container. People “are [choking] in there with the air, without air-conditioned air.”
He also had a message for Trump: “We all have a right to come here and work. Here, we all have a dream, we have to give it our all.”
Marc Cohodes, an investor and famed short-seller who has invested in Glass House, called the raid “beyond outrageous.” He added that Glass House is “the largest cannabis cultivator in the world” and “a highly regulated business fully licensed by the state of California. It’s run by a guy named Kyle Kazan, who is an ex-cop who plays by the rules and does things by the book.” Kazan, he added, is also a supporter of Trump.
Glass House Farms posted a statement on X on Thursday saying that the company had been “visited today by ICE officials” and “fully complied with agent search warrants.” The statement said nothing else, except to add that the company would “provide further updates if necessary.”
Ambulances were seen going in and out of the Camarillo facility, and Cohodes said as many as 14 people were injured in the action and taken to hospitals.
As the protest heated up, some members of the crowd shouted obscenities at agents. When gas canisters were fired, a few hurled water bottles before running away from the fumes. One woman on a megaphone pleaded with the officers to leave their posts and join the protesters so they could be on the right side of history.
But off to the side, Ricardo Mojica, a tall, silver-haired grandfather, quietly tried to talk to agents to find out what was happening with his son, who worked inside.
Mojica said his 31-year-old son “has no criminal records, he has never been arrested and was born just six miles from here at St. John’s Hospital. He’s the father of my granddaughter, and I haven’t heard anything from him since this morning.”
Mojica pointed to one of the Border Patrol guards and said, ‘He told me my son was being detained, but then his partner told him not to talk to me. I just want to know why he’s being held.”
Around 4:30 p.m. Oxnard native Christina Muñoz held her 2-year-old son on her hip as she strained to catch a glimpse of her husband, Christopher, a National Guardsman who she heard had been deployed that day from Los Angeles to the factory raid. Her mother stood nearby holding Christina’s infant daughter.
“I haven’t seen him for 30 days,” Muñoz said, “and I was hoping I could see him here.”
She and her children have been staying with her family in Oxnard since her husband was deployed.
“We thought it would be for just a few days,” she said, “but we didn’t see him for Father’s Day or the Fourth of July. We had no idea it would last this long.”
“He’s needed at home,” Muñoz’s mother said, as she bounced the baby in her arms. “His family needs him.”
Off to the side of the protesters, David Elliott stood watching the scene with a beer in one hand and a small six-pack cooler in the other.
“I’m out of beer,” he joked. The Camarillo resident said he had been heading for the beach, “but I got caught up in all the traffic and I thought, ‘You know what? I’m going to hang out here and see what happens.’”
Elliott said he supports law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he voted for Donald Trump to be president, but he doesn’t like what’s happening now with the immigration sweeps.
“I voted for Trump because he said he was going to go after the bad guys, and I know they’re there, but I don’t like what they’re doing now …. going after people at Home Depot or farmworkers in the fields.
“These are hardworking people — my gardener and his crew started working for my parents 20 years ago and now they work for me, and they’re illegal; they’re not bad people, they’re like family, and a lot of us depend on the work they do.
“I voted for Trump to clean out the bad guys first and then start working on a system to get the farmworkers and gardeners, but there’s got to be a better way. There should be a way to integrate them into our system because they work harder than anyone I know.”
There were a few things left out of this article:
- Pot is still federally illegal.
- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on X that 319 unlawful immigrants were apprehended during the raid at Glass House Farms.
- Law enforcement rescued 14 children from potential forced labor, exploitation, and trafficking.
- 8 of the children were unaccompanied. This means they were probably trafficked.
- One man (Roman Izquierda) taken into custody has a history of violent crime, including attempted child exploitation including a 7 year sentence for kidnapping & attempted rape, w/ a prior conviction for attempted child molestation.
- Another illegal alien (Juan Duarte-Velasquez) was wanted for DUI and Rape.
- Jose Orellana was convicted of felonet DUI and Hit-and-run.
- Adriana Gonzalez-Gonzalez was convicted three times for burglary and DUI.
- Glass House Farms is under investigation for possible child labor law violations.
- The company’s co-founder, president and board director, Graham Farrar, donated $10,000 to California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2018, among other Democratic politicians. He has also donated to Republicans, and shown support for Republicans who expressed support for liberalizing cannabis laws.
- The protestors threw rocks and bottles at ICE vehicles as they were leaving.
- On individual is wanted for shooting a gun at ICE agents. There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
- Agents claim that Jonathan Caravello was arrested for allegedly throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement officers
An irate Trump took to his Truth Social platform to blast the protesters, and authorize ICE to take whatever precautions are necessary to protect themselves during future raids.
“I am on my way back from Texas, and watched in disbelief as THUGS were violently throwing rocks and bricks at ICE Officers while they were moving down a roadway in their car and/or official vehicle,” he said.
Trump continued with a social media post:
“Tremendous damage was done to these brand new vehicles. I know for a fact that these Officers are having a hard time with allowing this to happen in that it shows such total disrespect for LAW AND ORDER.
“I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public,” he wrote. “I never want to see a car carrying a Law Enforcement Officer attacked again! AUTHORIZATION IMMEDIATELY GRANTED FOR ARREST AND INCARCERATION. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/child-predatory-among-more-than-300-nabbed-cannabis-farm-ice-raid-largest-trumps-second-term
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-11/ventura-county-immigration-raid
Reactions
The reporter is Abby Phillips.
No. 10 of the 14 children were unaccompanied. Parental permission is required.
Also, children as young as 12 years old can work on a farm outside of school hours. It doesn’t look like this was happening.
It Just Gets Better
According to L.A. Times:
Mayor Karen Bass announced a plan Friday to provide direct cash assistance to people who have been affected by the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration raids.
The aid will be distributed using cash cards with a “couple hundred” dollars on them, which should be available in about a week, Bass said at a news conference.
“You have people who don’t want to leave their homes, who are not going to work, and they are in need of cash,” she said.
Bass spoke about a family she met who needed two incomes to afford their rent. After one of the breadwinners was detained in an immigration raid, she said, the family is concerned they may face eviction.
It was not immediately clear what the qualifications will be needed to receive the cards.
The mayor emphasized that the money will not come from city coffers but from philanthropic partners. The cards will be distributed by immigrants rights groups such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
The city will coordinate between philanthropists and organizations distributing the cards, according to the mayor’s office.
https://www.newsmax.com/us/los-angeles-karen-bass-immigration/2025/07/11/id/1218496
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-11/l-a-will-provide-cash-assistance-to-immigrants
Dumbass of the Day