XPost: alt.law-enforcement, alt.politics.immigration, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   The coastal pot operation that was raided by a massive force of federal   
   immigration agents last week is the subject of a state investigation into   
   illegal child labor, state officials said Monday.   
      
   Officials with the state Department of Cannabis Control said they have   
   launched “an active investigation” after receiving a complaint that Glass   
   House, one of the state’s largest legal cannabis companies, had employed   
   minors. The company has facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, Calif.;   
   it’s unclear where the complaint was directed.   
      
   In a statement, state officials said they had conducted a site visit at   
   Glass House in May and found no violations. But later that month, the   
   department received a complaint and opened the investigation.   
      
   “The employment of individuals under the age of 21 in the cannabis   
   industry is strictly illegal, a serious matter, and is not tolerated,” the   
   statement said. “We encourage anyone with information about child labor or   
   trafficking at any facility to immediately contact the Department.”   
      
   Glass House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.   
   But in a statement posted to X last week, the company said it “does not   
   and has never employed minors.”   
      
   Federal officials raided the company’s operations in Santa Barbara and   
   Ventura counties as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign   
   against undocumented immigrants in California. Officials said they   
   arrested 361 people at the two sites, including “at least 14 migrant   
   children.”   
      
   In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said it had “rescued”   
   the children “from potential exploitation, forced labor and human   
   trafficking.” Department officials said 10 of the children, who were   
   unaccompanied minors, had been transferred to the custody of the   
   Department of Health and Human Services.   
      
   The Thursday raid brought chaos, panic and protests to the rural area of   
   the Central Coast. Agents fanned out across the company’s greenhouses, and   
   workers fled in panic, hiding in refrigerators, containers, car trunks and   
   on the greenhouse roofs. One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, 57, died after   
   he fell three stories trying to evade agents.   
      
   Meanwhile, protesters and family members of workers squared off at the   
   company gates against federal agents, who deployed tear gas and less-than-   
   lethal bullets.   
      
   Among those arrested, according to the Department of Homeland Security,   
   were “violent and dangerous criminal illegal aliens convicted of rape,   
   child molestation and kidnapping.” The department released the names of 10   
   people who had been charged with crimes such as indecent exposure, felony   
   possession of a firearm and possession with intent to sell narcotics.   
      
   Also arrested last week was Cal State Channel Islands professor Jonathan   
   Anthony Caravello, 37, who was accused of impeding or assaulting law   
   enforcement. Caravello appeared in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday,   
   where he posted bond and was released with an ankle monitor.   
      
   Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the operation had come to the   
   government’s attention in part because of concerns about possible child   
   labor.   
      
   “We went there because we knew, specifically from casework we had built   
   for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be   
   trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in   
   criminal activity,” Noem told reporters during a weekend appearance in   
   Florida.   
      
   Glass House is one of the largest legal cannabis operations in California,   
   the largest taxpayer in Ventura County and one of the area’s largest   
   employers. One of its founders, Kyle Kazan, is a former Torrance police   
   officer.   
      
   Court filings show many of Glass House’s employees actually work for a   
   Camarillo labor contractor. The labor contractor and the company have been   
   accused of labor law violations in recent years, including failure to pay   
   overtime or give meal breaks. Glass House has disputed the charges, levied   
   in civil suits in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, which are still   
   pending in court.   
      
   An attorney whose firm represents some Glass House workers said Monday   
   that his firm is also investigating child labor violations, based “on our   
   own independent investigation and information we’ve obtained.”   
      
   The attorney, Daniel Hyun, also said one of his cases had to be continued   
   when the lead client, Gerardo Melendez, was picked up by immigration   
   agents in March and put in immigration detention, making it impossible for   
   him to participate in the suit.   
      
   An attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Yliana Johansen-Mendez,   
   said her office had interviewed some of the children who had been detained   
   as part of the raid.   
      
   She did not provide details about how the minors had gotten hired or how   
   long they had lived and worked in Ventura. She said all the children now   
   face deportation. Even those children who have family members nearby, she   
   said, probably will not be able to reunite with them easily.   
      
   “It’s nearly impossible for undocumented family members to get children   
   out of ORR [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] to reunite,” she said,   
   adding that under the Trump administration, the government has been   
   pushing to deport children who in years past may have been granted   
   residency.   
      
   https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-14/pot-farm-raided-by-   
   immigrant-agents-has-open-child-labor-complaint-state-says   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)