Federal agents clash with protesters during ICE raid at Southern California farm
Federal agents clashed with protesters during an immigration raid at a farm in Southern California, one of at least two large-scale raids in the region on Thursday.
The incident occurred outside of an agricultural farm along Laguna Road in the Camarillo area of Ventura County.
In a statement to ABC News on Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the farm was a marijuana facility.
"DHS law enforcement is executing a warrant at a marijuana facility. Our brave officers will continue to enforce the law," the spokesperson said.
ABC News' Los Angeles station observed several clashes between onlookers, or protesters, and federal agents, with at least one person being detained.
Footage from the clashes saw federal agents pinning someone to the ground.
Federal agents, who were masked during the clashes, appeared to use crowd control measures, including deploying irritants.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's office released a statement on the immigration enforcement, calling it "inhumane."
"There’s a real cost to these inhumane immigration actions on hardworking families and communities, including farmworker communities, across America."
Newsom's office said in the statement that the Trump administration's tactics "evoke chaos, fear and terror within our communities at every turn."
Another large-scale immigration operation was seen in Carpinteria, California, north of Ventura County.
The coastal town's city council called for a meeting on Thursday to discuss the uptick in immigration enforcement in the area, which saw two raids earlier this week, according to the city.
Increased immigration enforcement comes as President Donald Trump has instructed ICE officers to do "all in their power" to oversee the largest mass deportation program in history.
On Monday, heavily armed federal border agents and U.S. troops descended upon MacArthur Park in Los Angeles as part of an immigration raid that appeared to turn up mostly empty.
The operation, which included 90 armed troops and 17 military Humvees, displaced a summer day camp, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who said the only point of the operation appeared to be "a political agenda of provoking fear and terror."
"To me, this is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city," Bass said.
Earlier this summer, Trump deployed some 4,700 troops to California under a law known as Title 10, which allows the use of military forces to protect federal personnel and federal property.
The president's action came as anti-immigration enforcement protests gripped the city, which saw both peaceful marches and violent clashes with law enforcement.
