One year after an immigration raid on a Carpinteria cannabis operation that ended with federal agents deploying smoke bombs at a crowd, the community gathered in remembrance and to once again protest immigration enforcement. 

More than 50 community members and local officials marched Saturday from Linden Field at Carpinteria State Beach to Casitas Pass and Foothill roads in the Carpinteria Valley, where many of the same people stood a year ago to protest the raid. 

On July 10, 2025, Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, raided Glass House Farms and arrested 10 people in Carpinteria.

Dozens of community members quickly gathered nearby to protest and call for the agents to leave without detaining the workers.

The raid was first reported around 11 a.m. Two hours later, the federal agents deployed smoke grenades near the crowd, estimated at 100 to 200 people, while they left the scene.

Teresa Alvarez, executive director of the Carpinteria Children’s Project, said she remembers the day clearly: the anxious energy, the fear and the chaos.

“The scene was chaotic and one that felt like something straight out of a movie, only this was reality,” Alvarez said. “As a community leader, I knew I needed to be here, but as a mom and an immigrant myself, I was terrified — especially when I realized I had no cell service and wasn’t sure what would happen if things happened to escalate.”

The Carpinteria raid happened in conjunction with a larger raid at a Glass House Farms facility at 645 Laguna Road near Camarillo. 

There, agents fired multiple projectiles into the crowd, including gas canisters. Local fire agencies declared a mass casualty event for the injured, the Ventura County Star reported.

In total, federal agents arrested more than 360 people during the Camarillo and Carpinteria raids. 

Alvarez reminded the crowd on Saturday that ICE activity has not stopped. She spoke about Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Houston, Texas, man whom ICE agents shot and killed on Tuesday.

“That could have been my dad,” Alvarez said. “That could have been your dad.”

Saturday’s march was four miles round-trip, with attendees banging tribal drums, repeating chants, and holding signs calling for ICE to leave Carpinteria and the Central Coast.

Passing motorists honked in support. People visiting businesses along Linden Avenue cheered and waved as protesters marched past.

The Carpinteria march was organized by 805UndocuFund, Carpinteria Sin Fronteras, Indivisible Carpinteria, SB Resiste, the Carpinteria Children’s Project and other activist groups.

Primitiva Hernandez, executive director of 805UndocuFund — which provides aid to immigrant families — was brought to tears as she spoke about the impact of the raids.

“What we are seeing today is going to be written in the books of U.S. history,” Hernandez said, “and this is something that this country is gonna have to deal with — the harm that they’re inflicting on our communities, profiting off of our pain.”

The march was attended by several elected officials, including Congressman Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, Carpinteria Councilwoman Julia Mayer and Santa Barbara Councilwoman Wendy Santamaria.

Federal agents had denied Carbajal access to the cannabis operation. He recalled arriving on the scene during the raid and hearing how Carpinteria Councilwoman Mónica Solórzano and a young boy were injured when agents used flash-bang grenades.

Mitch Lillie, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a member of VC Defensa, said he will never forget being at the Camarillo raid.

“I’ll remember the tear gas and the pepper bullets that just rained down on us with no warning,” Lillie said. “I’ll remember the agents that pushed us down as we were trying to flee. I’ll remember the agent that shot me in the temple and shot so many more other community members. I’ll remember how they laughed, how they smiled, how they treated it just like any other day in the office.”

He also recalled, however, the resistance and community action that emerged in response.

“I choose to remember how community members stood shoulder to shoulder against tanks, against bulletproof vests, against pepper bullets, against full machine guns. We stood shoulder to shoulder,” Lillie said.

Anthony Rodriguez, a rapid response organizer with 805UndocuFund, said that for him, the hardest part about responding to ICE arrests is seeing children left behind, separated from their parents.

“They will be traumatized,” Rodriguez said. “They could have PTSD. You know, there are so many things that come into play. Our children are our future, so why aren’t we allowing them to have that?”

Rodriguez and the other speakers encouraged the crowd to get involved and look after their neighbors.

“Nobody’s living right now. They’re just breathing, and that’s not fair,” Rodriguez said. “So, I’m asking all of you to please stand up. Don’t be afraid to be a voice for those that don’t have a voice.”