A U.S. Military veteran who was detained in the course of the large immigration raid in Ventura County final week stated Wednesday that he needs “a full investigation” into how he might have been held behind bars for 3 days regardless of being an American citizen.
“What occurred to me wasn’t only a mistake,” he stated in a written assertion. “It was a violation of my civil rights. It was extreme drive.”
At a information convention Wednesday, Retes, who’s 25 and the daddy of two youngsters, stated he had been on his option to his job as a safety guard at Glass Home farms on July 10 when “I obtained caught within the center between protesters and [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] brokers.”
Retes had been centered on his 3-year-old daughter’s upcoming birthday celebration and didn’t notice that Glass Home, one of many largest authorized hashish operations in California, was being raided by scores of closely armed immigration brokers.
Officers with the Division of Homeland Safety later stated they detained greater than 360 individuals within the raid, together with quite a few undocumented immigrants who had been charged with crimes. As brokers moved via the corporate’s greenhouses, many staff fled in a panic. One employee, Jaime Alanis Garcia, 56, died after he fell three tales whereas attempting to evade seize.
Protesters and relations of staff, in the meantime, massed on the Glass Home gates on Laguna Highway, squaring off in opposition to federal brokers, who deployed chemical brokers and less-lethal ammunition.
Retes stated he had labored at Glass Home as a contractor for the safety agency Securitas for seven months. He stated he unwittingly headed straight into that melee as he drove down Laguna Highway to report for his afternoon shift.
“I had no clue about it,” he stated. “After I pulled up, I noticed all of the automobiles, I noticed all of the visitors, and I used to be simply attempting to make my method via.”
He didn’t get to work. As a substitute, he stated, brokers smashed his automobile window, pepper-sprayed him and dragged him out at gunpoint.
“I let ICE brokers know that I’m a U.S. Citizen, that I’m American,” he stated. “They didn’t care. They by no means instructed me my prices. They despatched me away.”
Retes, who served in Iraq, stated brokers by no means instructed him why he was being detained on the federal Metropolitan Detention Heart in downtown Los Angeles. He was packed off, with out a cellphone name, entry to a lawyer, or perhaps a option to clear the pepper-spray residue off his garments and face, he stated.
Whereas in custody, Retes stated, he grew to become so distressed that he was placed on suicide watch, however he was nonetheless not allowed to contact an legal professional.
His sister and spouse in the meantime gave tearful interviews to native tv stations, pleading for info as to his whereabouts.
“We don’t know what to do,” his sister Destinee Majana instructed KABC-TV Channel 7 final week. “We’re simply asking to let my brother go. He’s a U.S. citizen. He didn’t do something unsuitable. He’s a veteran, disabled citizen. It says it on his automobile.”
“I simply don’t know the place he’s at. I’ve been up since 6 a.m. attempting to name the sheriff’s, the police division, Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura,” added his spouse, Guadalupe Torres. “They are saying they don’t know.”
Lastly, on Sunday, Retes stated, guards got here to his cell and instructed him he was going to be launched.
“An officer walked me downstairs,” he recalled. “I signed a paper to get my stuff again. That was it. They let me go.”
In an announcement, officers on the Division of Homeland Safety stated: “George Retes was arrested and has been launched. He has not been charged. The [U.S. attorney’s office] is reviewing his case, together with dozens of others, for potential federal prices associated to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.”
Retes stated he’s residence in Ventura now, spending time along with his youngsters and “having fun with being free. I took that with no consideration.”
He recovered his automobile, which he stated nonetheless has a smashed window, quite a few dents and a pointy tang of pepper spray.
However he stated he plans to file a lawsuit in opposition to the federal government over the best way he was handled.
“What they did isn’t proper,” he stated. “I’m right here talking for everybody who doesn’t have an opportunity to talk.”
