Camarillo — Ever since federal immigration brokers raided one of many largest licensed hashish operators within the state this month, the telephones of hashish business insiders have been blazing with messages of concern, disappointment and confusion.
“It despatched shock waves by way of the neighborhood,” mentioned Hirsh Jain, the founding father of Ananda Technique, which advises hashish companies. “Everyone seems to be on textual content threads.”
Glass Home Manufacturers, whose hashish operations have helped make Santa Barbara and Ventura counties the brand new hashish capitals of California, has lengthy been among the many most outstanding corporations within the state’s wild frontier of authorized hashish. Some name it the “Walmart of Weed” for its streamlined, low-cost manufacturing strategies, its gargantuan market share and its phalanx of rich buyers and highly effective lobbyists.
However federal immigration brokers stormed onto firm property in Camarillo and Carpinteria on July 10 in a cloud of tear gasoline, as in the event that they had been busting a felony enterprise. Brokers in masks and riot gear marched for hours by way of the corporate’s huge greenhouses as staff fled and hid in panic. One employee, Jaime Alanís Garcia, died after he fell three tales whereas making an attempt to evade seize.
For Glass Home, the aftermath has been devastating. Its inventory, which is traded on the Canadian inventory alternate, dropped from greater than $7.75 a share the day earlier than the raid to $5.27 on Thursday. Some staff disappeared into Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention or bolted, too fearful to return. Others had been so traumatized that Glass Home introduced in grief counselors, in line with a supply near the corporate.
Glass Home Manufacturers has lengthy been a outstanding firm in California’s wild frontier of authorized hashish.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
Throughout the broader world of authorized California hashish — the place many growers and entrepreneurs have hoped the Trump administration would legalize the drug — folks had been additionally shaken. Did the motion in opposition to Glass Home sign an finish to federal regulation enforcement’s ceasefire in opposition to authorized hashish in California and dozens of different states?
And what did it imply for Glass Home itself, among the many largest hashish corporations on this planet? How might this slick company entity, based by an ex-cop and particular schooling trainer and a former tech entrepreneur, be ready wherein federal brokers claimed to have apprehended greater than a dozen undocumented minors on web site?
“This might not come at a worse time,” mentioned Jain, the hashish advisor, including that the pictures and rhetoric which have whipped throughout social media within the wake of the raid “impedes our capacity to legitimize this business within the eyes of California and the American public.”
He added that “a failure to legitimize a authorized hashish business permits the proliferation of a bootleg business that’s not accountable and engages in way more nefarious practices.”
Working situations within the hashish business are notoriously grim, as documented in a 2022 Instances investigation that exposed staff who had their wages stolen, had been pressured to dwell in squalid and harmful situations and typically even died on the job.
Glass Home had no such reviews of accidents or deaths earlier than the raid and has lengthy touted its working situations. A supply near the corporate mentioned it pays staff greater than minimal wage, and web job postings mirror that.
Nonetheless, as with virtually all farmwork in California, a few of those that labored there have been undocumented. The corporate employs some folks immediately and depends on farm labor contractors to produce the remainder of its workforce. A supply near the corporate mentioned labor contractors certify that the employees fulfill all legal guidelines and laws, together with being 21 or older as required to work in hashish in California.
Within the days after the raid, federal officers introduced they’d detained 361 folks, together with 14 minors, who by California regulation can not work in hashish. It wasn’t clear what number of of these detained had been undocumented or what number of had been even working on the operation or had been simply close by. Not less than two Americans had been caught up within the dragnet — a safety guard headed to work at Glass Home and a philosophy professor at Cal State Channel Islands who was protesting the raid.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned this month that Glass Home had been focused as a result of “we knew, particularly from casework we had constructed for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was youngsters there that might be trafficked, being exploited, that there was people there concerned in felony exercise.”
Glass Home officers declined to remark for this text, however in an earlier assertion on X, the corporate mentioned that it had by no means employed minors and that it adopted all relevant employment legal guidelines. A supply near the corporate mentioned the search warrant federal officers introduced to Glass Home the day of the raid alleged it was suspected of harboring and unlawfully using undocumented immigrants — however didn’t point out youngster labor.
In the previous few years, the corporate — together with labor contractors — was named in lawsuits by staff alleging they’d been sexually harassed, suffered discrimination, and been shorted additional time pay and required meal and relaxation breaks.
One employee at Glass Home — who requested to not be recognized as a result of he’s undocumented and hid from immigration brokers throughout the raid earlier than escaping — mentioned he was employed to work in Glass Home’s hashish operation by way of one in all its labor contractors and valued the job as a result of it’s yr spherical, not seasonal like many agricultural jobs.
However he complained that the contractor had repeatedly paid him late, forcing him to borrow cash to make his hire. He additionally mentioned supervisors put intense strain on staff to work sooner, screaming expletives at staff, refusing to permit breaks, or yelling at them to eat rapidly and return to work earlier than their relaxation intervals had been finished.
A supply near the corporate mentioned the complaints concerned folks employed by labor contractors, concerning actions by these contractors and never Glass Home immediately.
Lots of the fits are pending, with Glass Home named as a co-defendant. Firm officers declined to remark publicly.
A supply near the corporate mentioned Glass Home takes significantly its obligations underneath California labor regulation and is dedicated to making sure that every one labor practices inside its operations meet the very best requirements.
The supply added that the raid has shaken an organization that has all the time tried to function by the e book and that, regardless of its exponential development in recent times, has sought to keep up a close-knit really feel.
“It’s very unhappy,” the supply mentioned.
Within the wake of the raids at Glass Home, the United Farm Employees union issued a bulletin in English and Spanish warning anybody who is just not a U.S. citizen to “keep away from working within the hashish business, even at state-licensed operations.” The union famous that “as a result of hashish stays criminalized underneath federal regulation, any contact with federal companies might have critical penalties even for folks with authorized standing.”
TODEC Authorized Heart, a Coachella Valley-based group that helps immigrants and farmworkers, issued the same message. TODEC warned noncitizens to keep away from working within the marijuana business and keep away from discussing any marijuana use or possession — even whether it is authorized in California — with federal brokers, as a result of it might harm their standing.
Federal brokers conduct a raid of Glass Home Manufacturers on Laguna Highway in Camarillo.
(Julie Leopo / For The Instances)
About half the farmworkers in California are undocumented, in line with UC Merced researchers. Hashish business specialists mentioned it’s too quickly to know whether or not the raid on Glass Home will have an effect on the bigger hashish workforce — or whether or not extra licensed hashish operations shall be raided.
“My finest visitor can be that that is going to be taking place to much more cultivation farms,” mentioned Meilad Rafiei, chief government of the hashish consulting group We Cann.
Among the many undocumented staff at Glass Home on the day of the raids was Alanís, 56, who had been a farmworker in California for 3 many years. During the last 10 years, Alanís labored within the Ventura space, first in a flower nursery after which, as soon as Glass Home transformed the large greenhouse advanced there, in hashish.
On Monday night time, his household held an emotional wake for him in Oxnard, the place he lived. The Camino del Sol Funeral Residence was crammed, as many relations held each other tightly and cried. They remembered him as a hardworking, joyful man, who danced at events and loved each meal he shared with household.
State Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who led the Senate in adjourning in Alanís’ reminiscence final week, instructed the chamber how he had climbed onto the roof of a greenhouse to flee federal officers. From 30 ft up, she mentioned, he referred to as his household to inform them what was taking place, and to report “how scared he was.”
“Jaime’s life was devoted to our lands, our crops, and to offering for his household,” Limón mentioned, including that he “had had no felony report, he was who our nation and our state relied on to offer meals on all of our tables.”
She added that “his final moments on Earth had been stuffed with terror.”
