Authorities made an announcement at about 3:45 pm, saying: “This is the police, please make way for emergency vehicles or chemical agents will be deployed."
Agents fired projectiles into the crowd, VC Star reports, including gas canisters when the crowd did not disperse. Protesters counteracted the effect of the gas by pouring milk on their faces.
ICE agents blocked off a road leading to Glass House Farms in Camarillo, which is one of the largest growers of cannabis in the state, with over 5 million square feet on which the plants are grown.. A group called 805 Immigrant Coalition, which tracks ICE, shared video showing agents blocking the road in advance of the raid.
Glass House Farms' greenhouses in Carpinteria were also raided. Workers could be seen on the other side of the caution tape. A woman who was outside the facility said that her husband, who is undocumented, was working inside.
"Last time I talked to him, he was hiding somewhere," she said. "They're taking hardworking people who have had no problems with the law." Others who had undocumented family members inside the facility also waited outside.
Some of those who were believed to be arrested had been in the country for 30 years without documentation. The United Farm Workers union said that members of the union were in contact with staff.
"All we know is that it's happening," said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers. "There's no good reason to do this to agricultural areas, to the agricultural industry. These workers are working very hard, and they are just living in panic."
"Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites said the initial operation appeared to be entirely composed of federal agents. The Ventura County Fire Department responded to a medical emergency at the location shortly before noon," VC Star reported.
