OXNARD — A father who has change into the only caretaker for his two younger youngsters after his spouse was deported. A faculty district seeing absenteeism much like what it skilled in the course of the pandemic. Companies struggling as a result of clients are scared to go exterior.
These are only a sampling of how this a part of Ventura County is reckoning with the aftermath of federal immigration raids on Glass Home hashish farms six months in the past, when a whole bunch of staff have been detained and households cut up aside. In some cases, there’s nonetheless uncertainty about what occurred to minors left behind after one or each dad and mom have been deported. Now, whereas Latino households collect for the vacations, companies and eating places are largely quiet as anxiousness about extra Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids lingers.
“There’s a variety of concern that the neighborhood resides,” stated Alicia Flores, govt director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Household Middle. This time of yr, purchasers often ask her about her vacation plans, however now nobody asks. Households are divided by the U.S. border or have family members in immigration detainment. “They have been prepared for Christmas, to make tamales, to make pozole, to make one thing and have a good time with the household. And now, nothing.”
On the time, the immigration raids on Glass Home Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria have been among the largest of their sort nationwide, leading to chaotic scenes, confusion and violence. At the least 361 undocumented immigrants have been detained, a lot of them third-party contractors for Glass Home. A kind of contractors, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell from a greenhouse rooftop within the July 10 raid.
Jacqueline Rodriguez, in mirror, works on a buyer’s hair as Silvia Lopez, left, proprietor of Divine Hair Design, waits for purchasers in downtown Oxnard on Dec. 19.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)
The raids catalyzed mass protests alongside the Central Coast and despatched a chill by way of Oxnard, a tight-knit neighborhood the place many households work within the surrounding fields and dwell in multigenerational houses much more modest than many on the Ventura County coast. It additionally reignited fears about how farmworker communities — usually among the many most low-paid and weak components of the labor pool — can be focused in the course of the Trump administration’s intense deportation marketing campaign.
In California, undocumented staff symbolize almost 60% of the agricultural workforce, and plenty of of them dwell in mixed-immigration-status households or households the place none are residents, stated Ana Padilla, govt director of the UC Merced Neighborhood and Labor Middle. After the Glass Home raid, Padilla and UC Merced affiliate professor Edward Flores recognized financial tendencies much like the Nice Recession, when private-sector jobs fell. Though undocumented staff contribute to state and federal taxes, they don’t qualify for unemployment advantages that would reduce the blow of job loss after a member of the family will get detained.
“These are households which have been extra affected by the financial penalties than every other group,” Padilla stated. She added that California ought to contemplate distributing “substitute funds” for staff and households which have misplaced revenue due to immigration enforcement exercise.
An Oxnard retailer proprietor who sells quinceañera and baptism clothes — and who requested that her identify not be used — says she has misplaced 60% of her enterprise because the immigrant raids this yr at Glass Home farms.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions)
Native companies are feeling the results as nicely. Silvia Lopez, who has run Divine Hair Design in downtown Oxnard for 16 years, stated she’s misplaced as a lot as 75% of enterprise after the July raid. The salon often noticed 40 purchasers a day, she stated, however on the day after the raid, it had solely two purchasers — and 4 stylists who have been shocked. Already, she stated, different salon homeowners have needed to shut, and he or she in the reduction of her personal hours to assist her remaining stylists make sufficient every month.
“Every little thing modified for everybody,” she stated.
In one other a part of city, a retailer proprietor who sells quinceañera and baptism clothes stated her gross sales have dropped by 60% each month since August, and purchasers have postponed buying. A automobile store proprietor, who declined to be recognized as a result of he fears authorities retribution, stated he supported President Trump due to his marketing campaign pledge to assist small-business homeowners like himself. However federal loans have been tough to entry, he stated, and he feels betrayed by the president’s deportation marketing campaign that has focused communities equivalent to Oxnard.
“There’s a variety of concern that the neighborhood resides,” stated Alicia Flores, govt director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Household Middle in downtown Oxnard, on Dec. 19, 2025.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions)
“Glass Home had a huge impact,” he stated. “It made individuals understand, ‘Oh s—, they’re hitting us arduous.’ ”
The raid’s domino impact has raised issues concerning the welfare of youngsters in affected households. Immigration enforcement actions can have detrimental results on younger youngsters, in accordance with the American Immigration Council, and they are often prone to experiencing extreme psychological misery.
Olivia Lopez, a neighborhood organizer at Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economic system, highlighted the predicament of 1 father. He turned the only caretaker of his toddler and 4-year-old son after his spouse was deported, and may’t afford little one care. He’s contemplating sending the youngsters throughout the border to his spouse in Mexico, who misses her children.
In a separate state of affairs, Lopez stated, an 18-year-old has been all of the sudden thrust into caring for 2 siblings after her mom, a single guardian, was deported.
Moreover, she stated she has heard tales of youngsters left behind, together with a 16-year-old who doesn’t wish to depart the U.S. and reunite along with her mom who was deported after the Glass Home raid. She stated she suspects that not less than 50 households — and as many as 100 youngsters — misplaced each or their solely guardian within the raid.
“I’ve questions after listening to all of the tales: The place are the youngsters, in circumstances the place two dad and mom, these chargeable for the youngsters, have been deported? The place are these youngsters?” she stated. “How did we get so far?”
Robin Godfrey, public data officer for the Ventura County Human Providers Company, which is chargeable for overseeing little one welfare within the county, stated she couldn’t reply particular questions on whether or not the company has change into conscious of minors left behind after dad and mom have been detained.
“Federal and state legal guidelines stop us from confirming or denying if youngsters from Glass Home Farms households got here into the kid welfare system,” she stated in a press release.
The raid has been jarring within the Oxnard College District, which was closed for summer season trip however reopened on July 10 to contact households and guarantee their well-being, Supt. Ana DeGenna stated. Her employees referred to as all 13,000 households within the district to ask whether or not they wanted assets and whether or not they needed entry to digital lessons for the upcoming college yr.
Even earlier than the July 10 raid, DeGenna and her employees have been getting ready. In January, after Trump was inaugurated, the district sped up putting in doorbells at each college web site in case immigration brokers tried to enter. They referred households to organizations that might assist them draft affidavits so their U.S.-born youngsters may have authorized guardians, in case the dad and mom have been deported. They requested dad and mom to submit not only one or two, however as many as 10 emergency contacts in case they don’t present as much as choose up their youngsters.
Rodrigo is contemplating transferring again to Mexico after dwelling within the U.S. for 42 years.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions)
With a district that’s 92% Latino, she stated, almost everyone seems to be fearful, whether or not they’re instantly or not directly affected, regardless if they’ve citizenship. Some households have self-deported, leaving the nation, whereas youngsters have modified households to proceed their education. Almost each morning, as raids proceed within the area, she fields calls about sightings of ICE autos close to colleges. When that occurs, she stated, she is aware of attendance can be depressed to close COVID-19 ranges for these surrounding colleges, with dad and mom afraid to ship their youngsters again to the classroom.
However in contrast to the pandemic, there is no such thing as a aid in understanding they’ve skilled the worst, such because the Glass Home raid, which noticed a whole bunch of households affected in only a day, she stated. The necessity for psychological well being counselors and help has solely grown.
“We have now to be there to guard them and deal with them, however we now have to acknowledge it’s a actuality they’re dwelling by way of,” she stated. “We will’t cease the training, we will’t cease the training, as a result of we additionally know that’s an important factor that’s going to assist them sooner or later to doubtlessly keep away from being victimized in any approach.”
Jasmine Cruz, 21, launched a GoFundMe web page after her father was taken in the course of the Glass Home raid. He stays in detention in Arizona, and the household employed an immigration lawyer in hopes of getting him launched.
Every month, she stated, it will get more durable to repay their lease and utility payments. She managed to boost about $2,700 by way of GoFundMe, which didn’t absolutely cowl a month of lease. Her mom is contemplating transferring the household again to Mexico if her father is deported, Cruz stated.
“I attempted telling my mother we must always keep right here,” she stated. “However she stated it’s an excessive amount of for us with out our dad.”
Most of the households torn aside by the Glass Home raid didn’t have plans in place, stated Lopez, the neighborhood organizer, and a few households have been resistant as a result of they believed they wouldn’t be affected. However after the raid, she obtained calls from a number of households who needed to know whether or not they may get household affidavit kinds notarized. One notary, she stated, spent 10 hours working with households free of charge, together with some former Glass Home staff who evaded the raid.
“The way in which I all the time clarify it’s, look, all the pieces that’s being carried out by this authorities company, you’ll be able to’t management,” she stated. “However what you’ll be able to management is having peace of thoughts understanding you probably did one thing to guard your youngsters and also you didn’t depart them unprotected.”
For a lot of undocumented immigrants, the alternatives are few.
Rodrigo, who’s undocumented and worries about ICE reprisals, has made his dwelling along with his guitar, which he has been enjoying since he was 17.
Whereas taking a break exterior a downtown Oxnard restaurant, he seemed drained, wiping his brow after serenading a pair, a pair and a gaggle at a Mexican restaurant. He has been within the U.S. for 42 years, however because the summer season raid, enterprise has been sluggish. Now, individuals not wish to rent for home events.
The 77-year-old stated he desires to retire however has to proceed working. However he fears getting picked up at random, based mostly on how abusive brokers have been. He’s eager about the brand new yr, and returning to Mexico on his personal accord.
“Earlier than they take away my guitar,” he stated, “I higher go.”
