Massive Immigration Raids At California Cannabis Nurseries: What It Means For Workers and Employees

Glass House, one of California’s biggest cannabis companies, became the focus of national headlines after federal agents carried out dramatic raids on two of its farms. The incident raised questions about how federal authorities approach large-scale cannabis operations and sparked heated reactions from community members and industry observers. What unfolded that day highlighted the growing tension between state-legal cannabis businesses and federal enforcement agencies.

What Happened At the Glass House Raid?

On July 10, 2025, ICE and Border Patrol agents raided two different Glass House cannabis farms in California, according to AP News. At the farm in Carmillo, masked agents “deployed onto the property,” while officers fired tear gas at protestors. One protestor threw a gas canister back at Border Patrol; another protestor “appeared to fire a gun” and is now “sought by the FBI.”

These raids came at the end of a month’s worth of intense clashes and increasing tensions between the Los Angeles community and law enforcement, ICE, Border Patrol, and the National Guard. 

Agents arrested over 360 people during the raid, including at least four U.S. citizens (one of whom, George Retes, is an Army veteran). A man named Jaime Alanis Garcia tragically died after falling off a greenhouse roof while trying to find safety. 

A father of two, Juve Lima was “deported to Mexico with no chance to fight for his freedom or a chance to say goodbye.” Julie Quintero recounts what Juve told her about his experience:

“In the limited contact we’ve had with him, Juve shared that during the raid, he attempted to hide, but ICE agents released gas into the area. The gas left him struggling to breathe, forcing him and others out of hiding. Once agents found where he was, they beat him in the back and tased him to subdue him. He witnessed agents shoot others with rubber bullets and subject them to the same suffering. During his deportation process, agents also threatened and mistreated him, creating a traumatic experience that has left him and our family in deep fear and pain. It breaks our hearts to hear the pain in his voice as he described how they tortured him.”

Many families are still unable to confirm where their loved ones are.

The United Farm Workers Release a Statement

The United Farm Workers of America, founded in the 1960s, is “the nation’s first enduring and largest farm workers’ union.” Most of their activism focuses on the agricultural landscape in California, though UFW contracts protect thousands of workers in California, Oregon, and Washington. They also work to develop legislation to ensure the protection of non-unionized farmers, including the nation’s first law requiring overtime pay for farmers.

Four days after the raid, on July 14th, the United Farm Workers released a Statement of Caution on Cannabis, urging “workers who are not U.S. citizens to avoid working in the cannabis industry, even at state-licensed operations.” UFW continues on to explain that “(b)ecause cannabis remains criminalized under federal law, any contact with federal agencies could have serious consequences even for people with legal status, including lawful permanent residents, DACA holders, or those with temporary status. Consequences could include detention, loss of status, or even deportation.”

This response is a humbling reminder of how precarious the cannabis industry is, and how the majority of that precarity falls on the shoulders of those doing the most important work – growing the medicine itself. It also highlights how the industry’s federal illegality makes it dangerous even for workers who have proper documentation. 

Glass House Company Response

ICE chose to target Glass House, the largest legal cannabis cultivator in the state, despite the sheer amount of illicit growth operations happening in California. Many industry leaders see this choice as a deliberate attack on California’s legal cannabis industry, which is still federally illegal. 

An LA Times article about the ICE raid draws attention to Glass House’s nickname as the “Walmart of Weed,” explaining that the nickname points to both the consumer convenience and market dominance of the brand — both largely dependent on its powerful financial backers and “streamlined, low-cost production methods.”

On August 4, Glass House released a statement including information about the raid and a bulleted list detailing ways the company is restructuring its “labor practices.” 

The company says they are “implementing best practices for determining employment eligibility for its employees and for ensuring eligibility of employees of contractors.” Glass House Brands never explicitly states that they are doing everything they can to avoid having immigrants in their fields moving forward. In fact, the term “immigrant” was never used once in the entire statement. But with some careful reading, it’s clear that they want to send a strong message about their commitment to vetting employees’ and contractors’ “eligibility.”

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The company also states that, beyond the nine Glass House employees detained or arrested, everyone else was either a third-party contractor or “unassociated with the Company.” 

Ultimately, Glass House is in the position to set the precedent for how cannabis companies respond to ICE raids – and their response, at least based on their statement, seems to be to build distance.

Carefully Selected Words

There tends to be a business-as-usual-ification in mainstream reports of this raid (and what’s happening with ICE at large). The specific words used in the media greatly impact how we perceive events. For example, the Holocaust Encyclopedia states that, while transferring Jews to killing centers, “The Germans attempted to disguise their intentions…as ‘resettlement to the east.’” Germans sanitized descriptions in order to suppress public knowledge.

But the manipulation of language in the press is not unique to the Nazi Regime.

Right now in the United States, Black and Brown people are being targeted, kidnapped, put on planes, and sometimes sent to a country they’re not even from — all largely happening without due process. That is, ICE can take someone in broad daylight and send them to another country without that person ever setting foot in front of a judge.

The government and mainstream media are calling this a deportation. Yet there are so many other words that also describe what’s happening. Neighbors, coworkers, family, friends, teachers, business owners, and so many more are all disappearing. Being kidnapped. Stolen from their loved ones. Ripped away. 

These honest descriptions are much harder to ignore than the sugarcoated and flattened catch-all term “deportation.” Even the most “factual” media will inherently impart a message through word choice.

Updates and Shared Humanity

Two months ago, a community member in California posted a masterlist of GoFundMe campaigns on Reddit for people impacted by the Glass House ICE raid. It’s not just a list of places to donate; it’s a vital collection of stories about the people and communities that the raid impacted. Some campaigns include updates, so they’re also a way to know about what’s happening to some of the people ICE captured. 

Here’s a small peek into some of the aftermath. A young man received a scared call from his mother during the raid and hasn’t heard anything since. School staff members stepped up to fundraise for students whose families were torn apart. Many of the workers who were taken were single parents who also supported their elderly parents, many of whom cannot enter the United States. One mother was in custody for ten days, while another didn’t have a court date until August, only to be denied bond.

You’re breathing. Your heart is beating. Certain things always make you laugh, and there are some topics you try not to talk about. Maybe there are specific childhood memories you hold dear, and smells that bring you right back to hugging someone you can’t hug anymore. 

The same can be said about every single person mentioned in this article. In just these simple ways, we all have an immense amount in common. Don’t let the world’s inhumanity take away your ability to see yourself and others as human. It’s the main thing we have to hold onto.

Where to Go From Here

In Trump’s memorandum to deploy Federal Troops in LA, he wrote: “To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

In other words, if you engage in violence or protest that prevents ICE from taking members of your community, you are officially rebelling against the government. And neither “violence” nor “protest” are clearly defined term.

This is not a story that can be tied up, at least not right now. It certainly can’t be covered in full depth in one article. You’re part of this story too, no matter how removed you may or may not feel. 

What role do you want to play?