VENTURA COUNTY, California ‒ Juan Reyes lay flat on the greenhouse roof, hiding. Federal immigration agents milled through the Glass House farm below.
Reyes moved to the U.S. from Mexico at 10 years old, and though he never secured legal status, Oxnard became his home. As he hid, he thought of his wife, who is also undocumented, and their newborn daughter, a U.S. citizen.
After several hours on July 10, he surrendered. Agents bound his wrists roughly with zip ties.
Reyes, 25, was one of hundreds of immigrant farmworkers arrested by federal agents in a massive raid on a pair of Glass House Farms cannabis greenhouse facilities in Carpinteria and outside Camarillo. It was one of the largest raids nationally during President Donald Trump's current immigration crackdown.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said its agents arrested 361 alleged undocumented immigrants including six with prior convictions and 14 teen minors during the all-day operation. One worker died after falling from a greenhouse roof.
