Rep. Carbajal Counters Claims He ‘Doxxed’ ICE Employee During Carpinteria Raid

Photos of an ICE agent’s injured hand are at the head of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press release from Monday, which claims that he was “attacked” by a “mob of rioters”  during the federal raid on the Glass House Farms cannabis greenhouse in Carpinteria on July 10. 

The DHS alleges that U.S. Congressmember Salud Carbajal, who joined the crowd of protestors, doxxed the employee — an ICE public affairs specialist — by showing protestors his business card, “making a target out of him.” The photos show a small, bloody wound on the ICE agent’s left hand, which was the result of “a rock being thrown at him,” the press release states, later claiming that it was one of many rocks and other objects thrown at federal officers. That particular agent, it said, “had to go to the emergency room and get stitches for his injury.” 

Carbajal countered these claims, noting the show of force by “aggressive” ICE agents during the July 10 raids, which also targeted a second Glass House Farms location in Camarillo. Agents, dressed in full military gear with sunglasses, hats, and masks covering their faces, reportedly deployed flash bangs, smoke cannisters, and rubber bullets into the crowds of civilian protesters who had gathered at both locations. 

In Carpinteria, Carbajal was denied entry by ICE agents at the front lines of the protest, after arriving to “find out what was going on” and “find someone who was in charge,” he later told the Independent. The congressmember said he was repeatedly pushed back during the exchange. 

In his statement released on Monday, he called the DHS’s claims “a blatant attempt to distort what occurred in Carpinteria.” 

“DHS and ICE conducted their raid using a disturbing and disproportionate level of force, both on the farm workers they were targeting and the peaceful protesters who gathered to defend their neighbors,” he said. “Just before I arrived at the scene, witnesses told me the agents threw a stun grenade into the crowd. Several civilians were injured, including a child. 

“This aggressive behavior in a normally quiet part of the Central Coast sparked alarm across our community, prompting a flood of calls and messages to my office from concerned citizens,” Carbajal continued. “I went to the scene to seek answers and represent my constituents. In response to my questions, an ICE Public Affairs specialist voluntarily gave me his card in full public view of the dozens of TV cameras, reporters, and livestreaming smartphones that were around us to film the interaction.”

He went on to say that ICE’s claims of “doxxing” and “violent mobs” are attempts to “deflect attention,” “distort the facts,” and “avoid accountability.” He added that the entire operation “left our community traumatized,” echoing similar sentiments shared at a Carpinteria City Council meeting later the same night. Advocates criticized the “militarized” response against immigrants and shared accounts of heightened anxiety, fear, and heartbreak due to ICE’s recent actions.

Past reports estimated that at least 10 workers were arrested during the Carpinteria raid. The recent DHS announcement stated that, in total, at least 361 reportedly undocumented immigrants were detained during the operations in Carpinteria and Camarillo. 

That includes a single mother to three boys, who had no criminal record and was deported soon after being picked up in last week’s raids. 

The DHS alleged that other workers who were arrested at the facilities — it did not say how many workers and did not name them — “had extensive criminal records.” In a separate DHS news release from July 13, however, it named four people arrested during the raids, who, it claimed, had criminal convictions related to rape, kidnapping, burglary, driving under the influence, and child molestation. However, it did not state which facility the men were arrested in. 

It also reported that the operation found “at least 14 migrant children” in the Camarillo facility, but did not include any further information about the children and did not clarify whether they were workers at the facility — something that Glass House Brands has vehemently denied, saying in a statement on Friday that it has “never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors.”

Four U.S. citizens are also being criminally processed for assaulting or resisting officers during the Camarillo operation, the DHS reported. It claims protesters damaged vehicles and one “violent agitator” fired a gun at law enforcement officers, with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) now offering $50,000 for any information leading to their arrest.