Supervisors Hear Hot Words
Over Federal Actions in Carpinteria
Seven Hours of Testimony Including from
Santa Barbara D.A. and the Sheriff
By Nick Welsh | July 16, 2025
Read more from
Smoke and Mirrors: Fallout from Federal Raids at Glass House Farms.
By the end, after seven hours of hot testimony before the Board of Supervisors concerning last Thursday’s military-style assault action at a Carpinteria cannabis greenhouse, it was determined there was very little the elected officials could actually do about it.
Four supervisors; District Attorney John Savrnoch; Public Defender Tracy Macuga; representatives for Congressmember Salud Carbajal, State Senator Monique Limón, and Assemblymember Gregg Hart; and about 65 activists and members of the public were unified in their sense of outrage about the events of July 10 when agents of ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and California National Guard arrived at the Glass House cannabis greenhouse in Carpinteria to serve two federal search warrants.
The speakers described, in various levels of shock, the confrontation, where several hundred protestors from the community faced about 50 heavily armed agents in military garb, many wearing facemasks and sunglasses. One speaker described the agents, who used flash-bang grenades and smoke canisters on the crowd, as “Brownshirts,” referring to the Nazi paramilitary organization that focused on intimidation and violence.
From the dais, 1st District Supervisor Roy Lee — a Chinese immigrant who represents Carpinteria and is no friend of the cannabis industry — described how he showed up to see with his own eyes what was going on. “It was the first time that I, as an immigrant, did not feel safe,” he stated.
More equivocal in his tone was Supervisor Bob Nelson, who said, “Good people on both sides can disagree.” He complained the media was exaggerating — stating that farms were reporting 95 percent of their workers were showing up as opposed to the 70 percent drop reported in many mainstream media accounts.
A handful of speakers also noted that the target of the actions — Glass House facilities in Carpinteria and Camarillo — were not so much raids targeting immigrants as they were part of criminal investigations of alleged labor law violations against well-known cannabis operator Graham Farrar.
In all, the agents detained 361 people; of these, four had serious felony convictions, 357 did not, and 14 were minors.
In Carpinteria, 10 people were detained; none had felony convictions. One woman, a mother of three, was deported. None were minors.
In Camarillo, one man fleeing from the camo-clad agents — masked and helmeted — fell from the top of a 30-foot greenhouse and died subsequently from the fall. He reportedly had no criminal convictions.
In a day overflowing with compelling commentary, the exchange between Supervisor Lee and Sheriff Brown was perhaps the most striking. After Sheriff Brown explained that his department did not and does not collaborate with ICE on immigration actions, Lee asked, “If I’m walking down the street and I’m approached by ICE agents and I call you, will your agents show up to protect me?” What can you do, he asked the sheriff, to protect me from racial profiling and possible kidnapping?
Brown took exception to the term “kidnapping” and explained it’s not his policy to intervene in the action of federal law enforcement agents on his turf unless he were to determine they were not bona fide federal agents. “So, your answer is there is nothing you can do,” Lee said.
“There’s very little we can do,” Brown explained, if they were truly federal agents. Summing it up, Lee asked, “So it’s between little or nothing?”
Ultimately, the supervisors found themselves in a similar fix. As for tangible actions, Lee suggested that maybe the supervisors could invite someone from ICE to show up to finally answer some questions. All supervisors agreed there had been — and remains — a dearth of reliable information coming from federal authorities.
Steve Lavagnino said he was astonished by how inaccessible and impervious ICE had been to simple requests for information. The supervisors voted to submit a Freedom of Information Act requesting how many Santa Barbara residents had been detained, on what charges, with what criminal record, and where were they sent.
They also voted to consider joining a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles ACLU against ICE and Homeland Security and to support legislation that would bar law enforcement agents from wearing masks and that would require them to provide their names upon demand.
Finally, they voted not to provide ICE or Homeland Security any personal information that would enable these agencies to identify undocumented workers without a court order.
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