Thursday morning, 15-year-old Juan Martinez received a frantic call from his mother. She told him Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were right outside the Glass House Farms complex where she worked and would enter at any moment. “She was rushed,” said Martinez. “She was panicking.”
Martinez didn’t know what to do. “It was really, really stressful,” he said. “I couldn’t drive over there. I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless.”
The next communication from Martinez’s mother came at 11:36 a.m., close to the end of her regular 3 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift. In a hushed voice text she said she was in custody in a van and being taken to Los Angeles. She told him to take care of his brothers. “That made me cry,” Martinez said.
Martinez’s mother was among more than two dozen Glass House Farms employees arrested during Thursday’s ICE raid on the cannabis company’s properties in Carpinteria and Camarillo. An undocumented migrant from Guerrero, Mexico, she had been living and working in Southern California for 16 years and has no criminal record, Martinez said.
Martinez has not heard from her since. Meanwhile, he is doing his best to look after his two siblings, ages 8 and 9. “I’m actually really lost right now,” he said. “I don’t know what to tell them because I don’t want them to freak out. Because they’re little, they’re little kids.”
Martinez said their home has enough food to last them the next few days and he is in touch with family members in Northern California to decide what to do next. “I’m trying to figure all that out,” he said. He has also been speaking with a Santa Barbara attorney who is trying to stop his mother’s deportation.
Juan Martinez’s mother with his two younger siblings
That attorney, Andrea Anaya with Kingston, Martinez, & Hogan, said while her law firm frequently works with victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, she’s “never received a call of a mother being abducted while working.” “This is not normal,” she said.
In previous administrations, Anaya said, ICE agents would use discretion when determining who to arrest during their enforcement operations. Parents or guardians of young children would often not be detained and instead receive a summons to appear in court. Now, Anaya said, anyone and everyone is being captured in the dragnets.
Anaya has filed a motion for a bond hearing in the hope Martinez’s mother will be released from custody while she waits her turn to see an immigration judge, a process that could take weeks or months. In the meantime Martinez is anxious to know how his mom is doing and at which federal detention facility she’s being held. “I just want to know where she is and if she’s okay,” he said.
Alexa’s mother is also a Glass House employee and undocumented resident who was similarly swept up in Thursday’s raid. That left Alexa, 16, to care for her 6-year-old and 10-month-old sisters by herself. “They became my responsibility,” she said.
Alexa’s mother is three months pregnant and at some point during her arrest a chemical substance was spilled on her leg, Alexa said. She told ICE agents she didn’t feel well and was worried about her baby. That prompted the agents to call paramedics, who transported her to a nearby hospital.
Alexa’s mother has since been released from custody but not before federal officials took her photo and copied her ID. “We’re all worried they’re going to come back for her,” Alexa said. “It’s crazy that they’re sending the military to arrest people who just want to work.”
Now living in Ojai, Alexa’s mother immigrated from Chihuahua, Mexico, 17 years ago at the height of cartel violence in the region. She’s made a living as a housekeeper and in agriculture, has a clean record, and always pays her taxes, Alexa said. “She wanted a better life,” Alexa explained. “Everyone comes here looking for a better life, looking for the American dream.”