The Illegal, Democrat-Linked Pot Farm the Left Wants You to Ignore

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I want to talk about a big controversy. And that is Immigration and Customs Enforcement was recently deployed to the largest pot farm, cannabis farm, in California: Glass House Farms, run by Graham Farrar. He is the owner of it. And he was employing well over 300 illegal aliens, openly, in front of everybody.

It’s in the wider Los Angeles area, in Ventura County. And ICE went there. Of course, as it happens now, people within the government, the bureaucracy, tip off protesters. So as soon as ICE got to the pot farm, there were people. The usual crowd: academics, leftists, Latino organizers that are radical.

And of course, they were waving the Mexican flag. The flag that the people who were going to be detained do not want to go back to. They were not waving the American flag, of the country in which they are desperately eager to stay, even under illegal auspices.

But here’s the irony. This raid typified or exemplified or was emblematic of all the strange things that are going on with illegal immigration.

First of all, this was a very liberal owner. He was a campaign donor to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Gave him over $10,000. He’s given to the Democratic National Committee. And yet, ICE went out there because they had news that not only were there over 350 people there who were illegally openly working in violation of immigration law, but there were minors.

And remember, in California, it’s against law to work anywhere if you’re under 14. You can work with a family member if you are 16 and above and you’re not in school. You know, you’re on a family farm, you’re helping.

But if you’re working on a cannabis farm, a marijuana farm, and you’re dealing with this potentially dangerous drug that you’re harvesting—but the state regulates the harvest of marijuana as it pertains to minors. And you have to be 21 years old to come in contact with this potentially dangerous drug. And that was another violation. There were numerous people there that were unattached minors that were breaking the law and harvesting marijuana.

And so, ICE had a reason to go in there and to enforce federal immigration law, despite the protest.

Another theme of this raid was there were people who they detained that had been charged for rape, for assault, for kidnapping. So there were criminals there, as well as people who were working illegally, as well as minors who were unattended that were working unlawfully.

And of course, it’s a liberal mantra to protect the children. And yet, this liberal concern that is the largest pot farm in California knowingly, it denied it, but it must have known that it had children in violation of state law.

The other theme was the protesters. We had the usual suspects, as I said. There were organized people. There were people who had tips that came out there. There was also a CSU professor. I taught in the CSU, California State University system, for 21 years. And here we had a Cal State professor who was protesting this. He must have had advanced warning to go all the way to Ventura and know where to go.

But nevertheless, he was arrested because when the protests—which are always called “peaceful”—turned violent and people started to throw objects at ICE, they had to use tear gas. This professor picked up a tear gas canister—walked over, picked it up—threw it at the officer, then left. Apparently, he came back later with different clothes to hide his identity.

But just put everything in perspective: Big liberal pot farmer, producing more pot than any other farm in the United States; almost exclusively, knowingly, publicly using illegal labor; knowingly having minors working in violation of California’s labor laws, coming in contact with marijuana.

Protests that were tipped off to impede ICE. Professors from a California public university going there and throwing tear gas canisters at federal officers.

And Gavin Newsom and the California Democratic political establishment—Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and others—siding with those people who were trying to impede ICE from arresting and detaining people in violation of federal immigration law, people with criminal records that were here illegally, and trying to separate and keep children out of this marijuana operation.

And yet, the Left thinks that this is going to be a legitimate protest movement with popularity or favorability among the California or, indeed, the United States public. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Meanwhile, while this raid was taking place, Mayor Karen Bass said that she wants to give illegal aliens—who are in their home—cash subsidies. She said, “Two hundred dollars. I don’t know how much.” She doesn’t know how much because she doesn’t really care how much.

She’s running for office. So, her primary concern is not the safety of people in Los Angeles. It’s not to bring back an expedited process for the people who lost their homes from the Pacific Palisades fire. It’s to give cash—taxpayers’ money—to people here unlawfully at the expense of U.S. citizens.

The pot raid, Karen Bass, it all has one theme: The Democratic Party and the Left, in general, favors people who are here illegally—foreign nationalists—over their own citizens.

And they think it was moral to break the law, to invite people, in the millions, in, and it’s amoral to try to rectify that situation by enforcing the law. And I don’t think the American people are going to stand for that.

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