Cannabis is fully legal in California, but people are still arrested for its cultivation and other illicit cannabis-related activities across the state. The most recent case of this comes out of Thermal, CA, a rural city in Riverside County, where the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the National Guard joined ranks to raid cannabis farms.
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The operation, which consisted of 500 officers, was backed by a task force consisting of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI. On the DEA’s X account, they said the raids were authorized by federal search warrants following a submission by the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
A DEA spokesperson said the mission targeted nearly 787 acres of illegal cannabis farms. Between 70 and 75 undocumented immigrants and one US citizen were arrested during the raids for impeding law enforcement—as of right now, more are still being questioned about their involvement in the operation.
Perla Verduzco, the whistleblower behind the raids, claimed that the farms were “hotbeds for human trafficking and illegal growing,” saying, “It’s owned by a Chinese guy that pays bail bonds or brings them illegally from China, and he puts them to work in the marijuana cultivation.” Others in the neighborhood feel as though the raids only served to place fear in the community, especially with the presence of ICE.
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These raids come in the wake of the ‘No Kings’ Protests, a series of demonstrations around the country meant to resist the second coming of the Trump Administration. In LA, these protests lasted days as ICE continued to detain and deport undocumented immigrants around the country.
According to NBC News, there are over 51,000 migrants in ICE detention, with 10.6 percent being “fast-tracked for deportation.” Roughly half of the 11,000 deported in February did not have criminal records, and over half of those currently in ICE detention have no charges or convictions.
As the nation’s unrest over Trump’s policies continues, raids like the ones in Thermal will most likely continue to happen, demonstrating the ways in which cannabis and immigration policies are inseparable.