OXNARD— A father who has become the sole caregiver for his two young children after his wife was deported. A school district experiencing absenteeism similar to what it experienced during the pandemic. Businesses are struggling because customers are afraid to go out.
These are just a sample of how this part of Ventura County is dealing with the fallout from the federal immigration raids on the Glass House cannabis farms six months ago, when hundreds of workers were detained and families divided. In some cases, there is still uncertainty about what happened to children left behind after one or both parents were deported. Now, as Latino households gather for the holidays, businesses and restaurants are largely quiet as anxiety persists over more raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“There is a lot of fear that the community is experiencing,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of the La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center. This time of year clients often ask him about their vacation plans, but now no one asks him. Families are divided by the United States border or have loved ones in immigration detention. “They were ready for Christmas, to make tamales, to make pozole, to do something and celebrate with their family, and now nothing.”
At the time, the immigration raids at Glass House Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria were some of the largest of their kind in the entire country, resulting in chaotic scenes, confusion and violence. At least 361 undocumented immigrants were detained, many of them outside Glass House contractors. One of those contractors, Jaime Alanis García, died after falling from the roof of a greenhouse in the July 10 raid.
Jacqueline Rodriguez, in the mirror, works on a client's hair while Silvia Lopez, left, owner of Divine Hair Design, waits for clients in downtown Oxnard on Dec. 19, 2025.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The raids catalyzed mass protests along the Central Coast and sent chills through Oxnard, a tight-knit community where many families work in the surrounding fields and live in multigenerational homes much more modest than many on the Ventura coast. It also reignited fears about how farmworker communities, often among the most vulnerable and lowest-paid parts of the workforce, would be targeted during the Trump administration's intense deportation campaign.
In California, undocumented workers make up nearly 60% of the agricultural workforce, and many of them live in households with mixed immigration status or in households where neither is a citizen, said Ana Padilla, executive director of the UC Merced Community and Workforce Center. After the Glass House raid, Padilla and UC Merced associate professor Edward Flores identified economic trends similar to the Great Recession, when private sector jobs fell. Although undocumented workers contribute to state and federal taxes, they do not qualify for unemployment benefits that could ease the blow of job loss after a family member is detained.
“These are households that have been hit harder by the economic fallout than any other group,” Padilla said. He added that California should consider distributing “replacement funds” for workers and families who have lost income due to immigration enforcement activity.
The owner of an Oxnard store that sells quinceañera and baptism dresses (and who asked that her name not be used) says she has lost 60% of her business since this year's immigrant raids on Glass House farms.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Local businesses are also feeling the effects. Silvia Lopez, who has run Divine Hair Design in downtown Oxnard for 16 years, said she lost up to 75% of business after the July raid. The salon usually served 40 clients a day, she said, but the day after the raid, it only had two clients and four stylists who were stunned. Other salon owners have already had to close, she said, and she reduced her hours to help the remaining stylists earn enough each month.
“Everything changed for everyone,” he said.
Elsewhere in the city, the owner of a store that sells quinceanera and baptism dresses said her sales have fallen 60% each month since August and customers have postponed purchases. An auto shop owner, who did not want to be identified because he fears government retaliation, said he supported President Trump because of his campaign promise to help small business owners like him. But federal loans have been difficult to access, he said, and he feels betrayed by the president's deportation campaign that has targeted communities like Oxnard.
“There is a lot of fear that the community is experiencing,” said Alicia Flores, executive director of the La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Center in downtown Oxnard, on December 19, 2025.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“Glass House had a huge impact,” he said. “It made people realize, 'Oh shit, they're hitting us hard.'”
The ripple effect of the raid has raised concerns about the well-being of children in the affected homes. Immigration enforcement actions can have detrimental effects on young children, according to the American Immigration Council, and they may be at risk of experiencing serious psychological distress.
Olivia López, community organizer with Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, highlighted the situation of one father. He became the sole caregiver for his baby and 4-year-old son after his wife was deported, and cannot afford to care for his children. He is considering sending the children across the border to his wife in Mexico, who misses them.
In a separate situation, Lopez said, an 18-year-old girl was suddenly forced to care for two siblings after her mother, a single parent, was deported.
Additionally, he said he has heard stories of children left behind, including a 16-year-old girl who does not want to leave the United States and reunite with her mother, who was deported after the Glass House raid. He said he suspects that at least 50 families (and up to 100 children) lost both or their only parent in the raid.
“I have questions after hearing all the stories: Where are the children, in cases where two parents, the ones responsible for the children, were deported? Where are those children?” she said. “How did we get to this point?”
Robin Godfrey, public information officer for the Ventura County Human Services Agency, which is responsible for overseeing child welfare in the county, said she could not answer specific questions about whether the agency had learned about abandoned children after their parents were detained.
“Federal and state laws prevent us from confirming or denying whether children from Glass House Farms families entered the child welfare system,” she said in a statement.
The raid has been a shock to the Oxnard School District, which was closed for summer vacation but reopened July 10 to contact families and ensure their well-being, the superintendent said. said Anna DeGenna. His staff called the district's 13,000 families to ask if they needed resources and if they wanted access to virtual classes for the next school year.
Even before the July 10 raid, DeGenna and his staff were preparing. In January, after Trump's inauguration, the district accelerated the installation of bells at all schools in case immigration agents attempted to enter. They referred families to organizations that would help them write affidavits so that their U.S.-born children could have legal guardians, in case the parents were deported. They asked parents to send not just one or two, but up to 10 emergency contacts in case they didn't show up to pick up their children.
Rodrigo is considering returning to Mexico after living in the United States for 42 years.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
With a district that is 92% Latino, he said, almost everyone is afraid, whether they are directly or indirectly affected, regardless of whether they have citizenship. Some families have self-deported and left the country, while children have changed homes to continue their studies. Almost every morning, as raids continue in the region, he receives calls about sightings of ICE vehicles near schools. When that happens, he said, he knows attendance will drop to near COVID-19 levels in surrounding schools, and parents will fear sending their children back to classrooms.
But unlike the pandemic, there is no relief in knowing that they have experienced the worst, like the Glass House raid, which saw hundreds of families affected in just one day, he said. The need for mental health counselors and support has only grown.
“We have to be there to protect and care for them, but we have to recognize that it is a reality that they are living,” he said. “We can't stop learning, we can't stop education, because we also know that that is the most important thing that will help them in the future to avoid potentially being victimized in some way.”
Jasmine Cruz, 21, launched a GoFundMe page after her father was taken away during the Glass House raid. He remains detained in Arizona and the family has hired an immigration attorney in hopes of freeing him.
Every month, he said, it becomes more difficult to pay rent and utility bills. She managed to raise about $2,700 through GoFundMe, which didn't fully cover one month's rent. His mother is considering moving the family back to Mexico if his father is deported, Cruz said.
“I tried to tell my mom that we should stay here,” he said. “But she said it's too much for us without our dad.”
Many of the families devastated by the Glass House raid had no plans in place, said Lopez, the community organizer, and some families resisted because they believed they would not be affected. But after the raid, he received calls from several families who wanted to know if they could notarize the family affidavit forms. One notary, he said, spent 10 hours working with families for free, including some former Glass House workers who evaded the raid.
“The way I always explain it is: Look, everything this government agency does cannot be controlled,” he said. “But what you can control is having the peace of mind of knowing that you did something to protect your children and did not leave them unprotected.”
For many undocumented immigrants, options are few.
Rodrigo, who is undocumented and fears retaliation from ICE, makes a living with his guitar, which he has played since he was 17 years old.
Taking a break outside a restaurant in downtown Oxnard, he appeared tired, wiping his forehead after serenading a couple, a couple and a group at a Mexican restaurant. He's been in the United States for 42 years, but since the summer raid, business has been slow. Now people no longer want to hire staff for house parties.
The 77-year-old said he wants to retire but has to keep working. But he fears he will be stopped at random, because of how abusive the officers have been. He is thinking about the new year and returning to Mexico of his own free will.
“Before they take my guitar,” he said, “I better go.”
