An Iraq War veteran from Los Angeles has taken federal immigration authorities to court, filing a lawsuit this week that says he was wrongfully arrested and held for three days during a July raid at a legal cannabis farm near Camarillo. In the filing, he alleges federal agents used tear gas and pepper spray on him, smashed his car window, then hauled him to a naval base before booking him into the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.
What the complaint says
The complaint, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court, describes how Retes says he drove to his job site only to find the road blocked by masked officers, a sequence that local outlets have reported in their coverage of the new case. According to the suit, officers shouted conflicting commands, engulfed his vehicle in gas, shattered his window, pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from the car, and then fingerprinted and photographed him at a nearby Navy installation, according to Courthouse News.
Lawyers and claims
Retes, who identifies as a U.S. citizen and Iraq combat veteran, says he was strip-searched, deprived of his belongings, and held "incommunicado" for more than 72 hours before being released without any charges. The Institute for Justice, which represents Retes alongside Michel & Associates, has posted case materials and says administrative FTCA claims were submitted last summer, according to the Institute for Justice.
Government response
The Department of Homeland Security has pushed back on reports that U.S. citizens were wrongfully targeted in the raids, saying online that Retes "became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement" and that Customs and Border Protection arrested him for assault. DHS officials have said cases from the July operations are under review, according to local coverage of the agency's social media posts by KEYT.
Raid fallout
The July operations at Glass House Farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo drew national scrutiny after video and on-the-ground reporting showed federal agents using tear gas, rubber rounds and smoke devices while protesters gathered nearby. Investigators detained more than 360 people across the two sites and said federal officials discovered minors at one facility, according to the AP.
What comes next
In a San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece, Retes warned, "If it can happen to me, it can happen to any one of us," and his new lawsuit is already renewing scrutiny of federal tactics and accountability. The complaint lands amid ongoing litigation over federal crowd-control tactics in Southern California, where a judge's preliminary order limiting DHS's use of force against journalists was largely left in place by the Ninth Circuit last December. Legal observers say the case could test how courts apply immunity defenses to alleged constitutional harms, according to the San Francisco Chronicle and Courthouse News.
