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 just 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 employees have been detained and households break up aside. In some situations, there’s nonetheless uncertainty about what occurred to minors left behind after one or each mother and father 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 plenty of worry that the group resides,” stated Alicia Flores, govt director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Household Middle. This time of yr, purchasers normally 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 fun with the household. And now, nothing.”
On the time, the immigration raids on Glass Home Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria have been a number of the largest of their sort nationwide, leading to chaotic scenes, confusion and violence. A minimum of 361 undocumented immigrants have been detained, lots of them third-party contractors for Glass Home. A type 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, 2025.
(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 group the place many households work within the surrounding fields and reside in multigenerational properties much more modest than many on the Ventura coast. It additionally reignited fears about how farmworker communities — usually among the many most low-paid and susceptible elements of the labor pool — could be focused in the course of the Trump administration’s intense deportation marketing campaign.
In California, undocumented employees signify almost 60% of the agricultural workforce, and lots of of them reside 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 developments just like the Nice Recession, when private-sector jobs fell. Though undocumented employees contribute to state and federal taxes, they don’t qualify for unemployment advantages that might reduce the blow of job loss after a member of the family will get detained.
“These are households which were extra affected by the financial penalties than another group,” Padilla stated. She added that California ought to take into account distributing “alternative funds” for employees and households which have misplaced earnings 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 normally 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 surprised. Already, she stated, different salon house owners have needed to shut, and she or he reduce her personal hours to assist her remaining stylists make sufficient every month.
“All the things 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 purchasing. A automotive 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 house owners 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 comparable to Oxnard.
“There’s plenty of worry that the group 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 laborious.’ ”
The raid’s domino impact has raised considerations in regards to the welfare of kids in affected households. Immigration enforcement actions can have detrimental results on younger youngsters, in accordance with the American Immigration Council, and they are often vulnerable to experiencing extreme psychological misery.
Olivia Lopez, a group organizer at Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Financial 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 youngster 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 immediately thrust into caring for 2 siblings after her mom, a single mum or dad, was deported.
Moreover, she stated she has heard tales of kids left behind, together with a 16-year-old who doesn’t wish to depart the U.S. and reunite together 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 mum or dad within the raid.
“I’ve questions after listening to all of the tales: The place are the youngsters, in circumstances the place two mother and father, 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 youngster 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 mother and father have been detained.
“Federal and state legal guidelines forestall us from confirming or denying if youngsters from Glass Home Farms households got here into the kid welfare system,” she stated in an announcement.
The raid has been jarring within the Oxnard College District, which was closed for summer time 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 courses 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 will assist them draft affidavits so their U.S.-born youngsters might have authorized guardians, in case the mother and father have been deported. They requested mother and father 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 shifting 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 immediately 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 automobiles close to colleges. When that occurs, she stated, she is aware of attendance might be depressed to close COVID-19 ranges for these surrounding colleges, with mother and father afraid to ship their youngsters again to the classroom.
However not like the pandemic, there isn’t any reduction in realizing 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 assist has solely grown.
“We’ve got to be there to guard them and care for them, however we now have to acknowledge it’s a actuality they’re dwelling by way of,” she stated. “We are able to’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 manner.”
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 legal professional 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 shifting 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.”
Lots of the households torn aside by the Glass Home raid didn’t have plans in place, stated Lopez, the group 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 might get household affidavit kinds notarized. One notary, she stated, spent 10 hours working with households without spending a dime, together with some former Glass Home employees who evaded the raid.
“The best way I at all times clarify it’s, look, all the things that’s being performed by this authorities company, you possibly can’t management,” she stated. “However what you possibly can management is having peace of thoughts realizing 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 regarded 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 time raid, enterprise has been sluggish. Now, individuals not wish to rent for home events.
The 77-year-old stated he needs to retire however has to proceed working. However he fears getting picked up at random, primarily based on how abusive brokers have been. He’s fascinated 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.”
