Vet targeted after speaking out

He wrote an op-ed about an ICE raid. Now Homeland Security is accusing him of assault.

- BY MELISSA GOMEZ

GEORGE RETES JR. in 2020 near Baghdad. In July, he was arrested by ICE in Camarillo when he arrived for his job as a security guard.

George Retes Jr. grew up in Southern California, and when he turned 18, he decided to serve in the U.S. Army, he said, because he wanted to be part of something bigger than himself.

After a tour of duty in Iraq, Retes moved back to Ventura County this year to find a job and spend more time with his wife and two young children. In February, he began working as a contracted security guard for Glass House Farms at its cannabis greenhouses in Camarillo. Then, on July 10, everything changed as ICE raided Glass House one of its largest immigration raids ever-while he was trying to get to work.

Federal officers surrounded Retes and pushed him to the ground. He could hardly breathe, he said, as officers knelt on his back and neck. He was arrested, jailed for three days and was not allowed to make a phone call or see an attorney, according to the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is representing him.

President Trump's Department of Homeland Security never charged Retes with a crime. But after he wrote an oped about his experience this month, DHS started issuing new accusations against him — saying he was arrested for assault during the raid, which the 25-year-old veteran has denied. Retes said he never resisted, and now is being targeted for retaliation because he spoke out about an arrest he sees as unlawful.

"I SERVED my country. ... If it can happen to me, it can happen to any one of us," George Retes Jr. wrote. ELIZABETH STRATER United Farm Workers