U.S. Citizen Detained During ICE Raid Responds to DHS Accusations

VENTURA, Calif. (KEYT) - A U.S. citizen and Army veteran detained during the Glass House cannabis farm ICE raid in July is responding to a Homeland Security social media post that followed an opinion piece he wrote that was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sept. 16th about his 3-day detainment.

The op-ed was entitled "I'm a U.S. Citizen who was wrongly arrested and held by ICE. Here's why you could be next."

The next day, on Sept. 17th Homeland Security @DHSgov wrote in part that "George Retes became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement. He challenged agents and blocked their route by refusing to move his vehicle out of the road. CBP arrested Retes for assault. U.S. citizens are NOT "wrongfully" being arrested by ICE."

The X post shared a screen shot of the opinion piece title and went on to say "These types of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement. This kind of garbage has led to a more than 1000 % increase in the assaults on enforcement officers."

During a News Channel interview last month Retes talked about video showing him standing next to his white car on July 10 as agents carried out a raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria.

He was on his way to work as a security guard at the gate but had not yet put on his uniform.

He said he served a tour in Iraq and didn't think he would be in danger despite a protest on the street in front of the farm.

“I didn’t think it would be a problem. I didn’t do anything wrong. I wasn’t aggressive. I was just trying to let them know i needed to get to work. I’m not protesting. I’m not trying to get in their face" said Retes “the entire [Army] training process taught me to stay calm under pressure."

Retes is now speaking out about the DHS X post.

"It is mind blowing that they would just..they would try to spin it that way and promote in their own way and try to and just try to use my story as a way to promote ICE and what they want to do, I don't know it was just crazy, to say I assaulted officers and just everything, it was insane that they would lie like that," said Retes.

His lawyer, Anya Bidwell, with The Institute for Justice, is working pro bono and said the government is spinning what happened.

Retes said their spin couldn't be further from the truth.

"They are trying to spin the narrative. According to their tweet what they are trying to accuse me of is assaulting agents and being disruptive and not listening," said Retes.

Retes is taking steps to sue the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging unconstitutional detention.

She said the case could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Video taken by local media could be used as evidence.

"The video shows them yelling conflicting orders, banging on my window, telling me to reverse, " said Retes," banging on my window, pulling my door handles, they reversed me out of the way."

Retes, 25, missed his daughter's third birthday while in custody.

"My kids are everything to me, my kids are the what keeps me going every single day, it is the reason why I wake up and just get after every singe day and try to be a better person for them, better father for them," said Retes.

Also while in custody he said in his op-ed that his hands were burning from pepper spray and tear gas that he was not allowed to wash off. He was not allowed to make a phone call or speak to a lawyer.

He wrote, "By letting masked agents stop people based on how they look, talk or where they work, protection has become persecution."

He has not returned to work since the detention and as a contract worker if he doesn't work he doesn't get paid. He also had to repair his car window.

"I am just kind of going to take it day by day, you can't, like, what happened to you define you, I am not going to sit around and mope about it," said Retes.

He is hoping the government will take responsibility for what happened.

Hopefully for me what comes forward is accountability for everything that has happened," said Retes.

DHS has not responded to multiple Freedom of Information Act or FOIA requests from your News Channel following our reporting and prior to the X post.

For a link to his op-ed visit https://sfchronicle.com