US Citizen Veteran Wrongfully Detained: When Immigration Raids Target The Wrong People
George Retes woke up July 10th expecting an ordinary workday. Instead, the 25-year-old Army veteran found himself trapped in an immigration enforcement nightmare that would tear apart his family’s most cherished plans.
When Retes arrived at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, where he worked as a contract security guard, federal agents had already descended on the marijuana facility. Over 300 people would be arrested that day across two locations in what became one of the largest immigration raids in recent California history.
The Iraq War veteran approached the barricade of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, confident his citizenship would resolve any confusion. “I didn’t think it was gonna be a problem for me to go to work … as long as I identified myself,” Retes later recalled.
The agents refused to listen.
What followed shattered any illusion that legal status provides protection from enforcement errors. When Retes tried to leave the escalating scene, agents surrounded his vehicle, shouting conflicting orders. They shattered his driver’s side window, deployed pepper spray directly into his face, and dragged him from his car as tear gas clouded the air around hundreds of protesters.
“All I wanted was to be there for my daughter’s birthday,” Retes would later say, his voice breaking as he described the three-year-old’s planned Minnie Mouse party – the celebration that would never happen.
Three Days In Hell: Inside The Detention Of An Innocent Father
An EMT bandaged Retes’ bleeding leg before federal agents loaded him into an unmarked SUV. His destination: downtown Los Angeles’ Metropolitan Detention Center, where he would vanish into the system for three endless days.
No one explained why he was there. No one answered his repeated questions. Even the booking officers seemed confused about his case, Retes recalled. “No one even knew who arrested me or why they arrested me,” he said.
Based on intake responses about his mental state, officials placed the father on suicide watch – solitary confinement in a cell where bright lights never turned off. Guards monitored him constantly while a psychiatrist made daily visits to ensure he wouldn’t harm himself.
The gash on his leg from the shattered car window received no medical attention, despite his repeated requests. Tear gas and pepper spray continued burning his skin and eyes, but he never got a chance to shower. Sleep proved impossible on what he described as a cement block covered by a thin mattress.
Throughout his detention, Retes couldn’t contact an attorney or call his wife. His family received no information about his whereabouts from any agency they contacted.
The Department of Homeland Security later accused Retes of assault, claiming he “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement.” Yet federal prosecutors declined to file any charges against him.
“I would like to see where I assaulted an officer, and if that’s true, why wasn’t I charged?” Retes demanded.
