Chatting the Pictures: When Immigration Raids Come to the Farm Fields

Michael Owen Baker captured this image for the Associated Press during a federal immigration raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, on July 10, 2025. It shows agents deploying tear gas against protesters who had gathered outside the agricultural facility. The raid, which resulted in over 300 arrests and one worker’s death, represents a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics in California’s agricultural heartland and raises concerns about disruptions to the nation’s food supply.

In our latest Chatting the Pictures video, we examine how this agricultural setting transforms typical urban protest imagery and how the stop-action moment invites contemplation. We analyze the compositional choice that aligns the compliant protester with the crops while federal agents stomp through them, symbolically destroying both human dignity and the steady supply of farm labor.