Two major ICE raids targeting farms in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties Thursday drew large, angry crowds, at one point leading to use of flash bang grenades and smoke bombs.
Emotions were high as more than 200 people showed up on Casitas Pass Road in Carpinteria, after learning ICE raids targeted some farms in the area.
At one point, a dozen armed officers armed with rifles blocked demonstrators from walking towards the ranches.
"It did get a little heated. A lot of folks here, their blood is up, and they're very, very angry that there's ICE in the neighborhood," said Steve Mead, who lives near the scene.
"They (the officers) went as far as to throw flash grenades at the crowd, which I don't think was called for at the time, because there was no contact whatsoever."
George Jimenez says his parents work at one of the farms in the area. He says they are safe, but he doesn’t understand why the workers are being treated as criminals.
"They're working," said Jimenez. "It's not like they are criminals."
As officers left the roadblock area, they deployed smoke grenades as some of the protesters ran after their armored vehicle.
Among the targets of the ICE raids were two cannabis growing operations, one in Carpinteria and one in Camarillo, both operated by a company called Glass House Farms. There’s no word on how many people were detained.
ICE officials didn’t respond to KCLU’s request for information on the raids.
In the Camarillo raid, helicopter shots from television stations showed people being put into vans, with some in handcuffs. There's no word of any arrests among the protesters.
