According to the Department of Homeland Security, California Democrat Rep. Salud Carbajal is directly linked to an assault on a public affairs officer who was hit by a thrown rock outside Glass House Farms, a marijuana farm raided by ICE agents July 10.
Arriving with criminal search warrants, ICE agents arrested more than 300 suspected illegal aliens, including minors, when they raided Glass House properties in Carpinteria and in Camarillo, both located in Southern California.
A related Fox News story describes a “massive riot” of 500 participants outside the Carpinteria farm. That crowd included Carbajal, who is accused in a DHS press release of showing the officer’s business card to the mob. That made him a target, DHS says, and the officer was later taken to the emergency room after a rock thrown by a protester sliced his hand.
DHS included photos of the ICE agent’s bleeding hand in its press release that accuses the congressman of “doxing” the agent at the scene of the raid and the violent protest.
Accused of contributing to the ICE agent’s injury, Rep. Carbajal wrote in an X post ICE was trying to “distort public perception” to deflect from its "aggressive” actions that included firing tear gas and non-lethal ammunition.
The congressman also said he joined “peaceful protesters” outside one of the farm sites, but the FBI is looking for a suspect, a young Hispanic male, who is pictured on camera firing a handgun at ICE agents at Camarillo. A university professor is also facing charges for throwing a tear gas canister at agents.
The lawmaker’s social media post never addressed the press aide and the business card, or the wounded federal agent.
The Santa Barbara Independent newspaper reported the congressman showed the business card to its reporter.
Kevin McGary is chairman of the Frederick Douglas Foundation of California. He says, quite bluntly, Rep. Carbajal should be put in shackles like a prisoner and put on trial.
“The law's the law,” McGary argues, “and nobody is above the law.”
So far, however, DHS and the White House seem content with a strategy of shaming and blaming Democrats for what DHS says is a 700% increase in assaults on ICE agents since Trump took office in January.
“May the congressman’s constituency always remember he chooses violence over the rule of law,” ICE wrote in a social media post.
