OXNARD — A father who has turn out to be the only real caretaker for his two younger kids after his spouse was deported. A college district seeing absenteeism just like what it skilled throughout the pandemic. Companies struggling as a result of prospects 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 tons of of employees had been detained and households cut up aside. In some cases, there may be nonetheless uncertainty about what occurred to minors left behind after one or each dad and mom had been deported. Now, whereas Latino households collect for the vacations, companies and eating places are largely quiet as nervousness about extra Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids lingers.
“There’s lots of concern that the neighborhood resides,” stated Alicia Flores, government director of La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Household Middle. This time of yr, shoppers 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 had been prepared for Christmas, to make tamales, to make pozole, to make one thing and rejoice with the household. And now, nothing.”
On the time, the immigration raids on Glass Home Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria had been a number of the largest of their sort nationwide, leading to chaotic scenes, confusion and violence. A minimum of 361 undocumented immigrants had been detained, lots of them third-party contractors for Glass Home. A kind 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 patrons 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 via Oxnard, a tight-knit neighborhood the place many households work within the surrounding fields and stay in multigenerational houses much more modest than many on the Ventura coast. It additionally reignited fears about how farmworker communities — typically among the many most low-paid and weak components of the labor pool — could be focused throughout the Trump administration’s intense deportation marketing campaign.
In California, undocumented employees signify practically 60% of the agricultural workforce, and lots of of them stay in mixed-immigration-status households or households the place none are residents, stated Ana Padilla, government director of the UC Merced Group and Labor Middle. After the Glass Home raid, Padilla and UC Merced affiliate professor Edward Flores recognized financial tendencies 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 would reduce the blow of job loss after a member of the family will get detained.
“These are households which have been extra affected by the financial penalties than some other group,” Padilla stated. She added that California ought to contemplate 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 title not be used — says she has misplaced 60% of her enterprise for the reason that immigrant raids this yr at Glass Home farms.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Occasions)
Native companies are feeling the consequences as properly. 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 shoppers a day, she stated, however on the day after the raid, it had solely two shoppers — and 4 stylists who had been shocked. Already, she stated, different salon homeowners have needed to shut, and he or she in the reduction of her personal hours to assist her remaining stylists make sufficient every month.
“Every part 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 shoppers have postponed buying. A automobile 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 homeowners 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 equivalent to Oxnard.
“There’s lots of concern that the neighborhood resides,” stated Alicia Flores, government 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 folks understand, ‘Oh s—, they’re hitting us exhausting.’ ”
The raid’s domino impact has raised considerations concerning the welfare of kids in affected households. Immigration enforcement actions can have detrimental results on younger kids, in keeping with the American Immigration Council, and they are often vulnerable to experiencing extreme psychological misery.
Olivia Lopez, a neighborhood organizer at Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economic system, highlighted the predicament of 1 father. He turned the only real caretaker of his toddler and 4-year-old son after his spouse was deported, and might’t afford little one care. He’s contemplating sending the kids throughout the border to his spouse in Mexico, who misses her youngsters.
In a separate state of affairs, Lopez stated, an 18-year-old has been all of the sudden thrust into caring for 2 siblings after her mom, a single dad or mum, was deported.
Moreover, she stated she has heard tales of kids left behind, together with a 16-year-old who doesn’t need to go away 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 kids — misplaced each or their solely dad or mum within the raid.
“I’ve questions after listening to all of the tales: The place are the kids, in circumstances the place two dad and mom, these accountable for the kids, had been deported? The place are these kids?” she stated. “How did we get up to now?”
Robin Godfrey, public data officer for the Ventura County Human Companies Company, which is accountable for overseeing little one welfare within the county, stated she couldn’t reply particular questions on whether or not the company has turn out to be conscious of minors left behind after dad and mom had been detained.
“Federal and state legal guidelines forestall us from confirming or denying if kids from Glass Home Farms households got here into the kid welfare system,” she stated in a press release.
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 sources and whether or not they wished entry to digital courses for the upcoming college yr.
Even earlier than the July 10 raid, DeGenna and her employees had been getting ready. In January, after Trump was inaugurated, the district sped up putting in doorbells at each college website in case immigration brokers tried to enter. They referred households to organizations that will assist them draft affidavits so their U.S.-born kids might have authorized guardians, in case the dad and mom had been deported. They requested dad and mom 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 kids.
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, practically 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 kids have modified households to proceed their education. Practically each morning, as raids proceed within the area, she fields calls about sightings of ICE autos close to colleges. When that occurs, she stated, she is aware of attendance shall be depressed to close COVID-19 ranges for these surrounding colleges, with dad and mom afraid to ship their kids again to the classroom.
However not like the pandemic, there is no such thing as a reduction in figuring out they’ve skilled the worst, such because the Glass Home raid, which noticed tons of of households affected in only a day, she stated. The necessity for psychological well being counselors and help has solely grown.
“We have now to be there to guard them and handle them, however we now have to acknowledge it’s a actuality they’re dwelling via,” she stated. “We will’t cease the educational, we are able to’t cease the schooling, as a result of we additionally know that’s an important factor that’s going to assist them sooner or later to probably keep away from being victimized in any means.”
Jasmine Cruz, 21, launched a GoFundMe web page after her father was taken throughout the Glass Home raid. He stays in detention in Arizona, and the household employed an immigration lawyer in hopes of getting him launched.
Every month, she stated, it will get more durable to repay their hire and utility payments. She managed to lift about $2,700 via GoFundMe, which didn’t totally cowl a month of hire. Her mom is contemplating shifting the household again to Mexico if her father is deported, Cruz stated.
“I attempted telling my mother we should always keep right here,” she stated. “However she stated it’s an excessive amount of for us with out our dad.”
Most of the households torn aside by the Glass Home raid didn’t have plans in place, stated Lopez, the neighborhood organizer, and a few households had 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 wished to know whether or not they might get household affidavit varieties notarized. One notary, she stated, spent 10 hours working with households totally free, together with some former Glass Home employees who evaded the raid.
“The best way I at all times clarify it’s, look, the whole lot that’s being accomplished by this authorities company, you’ll be able to’t management,” she stated. “However what you’ll be able to management is having peace of thoughts figuring out you probably did one thing to guard your kids and also you didn’t go away 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 together with his guitar, which he has been enjoying since he was 17.
Whereas taking a break exterior a downtown Oxnard restaurant, he seemed drained, wiping his brow after serenading a pair, a pair and a bunch at a Mexican restaurant. He has been within the U.S. for 42 years, however for the reason that summer time raid, enterprise has been gradual. Now, folks not need 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 serious 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.”
