While federal agents were rescuing children from a violent predator on a California cannabis farm, Gavin Newsom was 2,500 miles away, mocking a father on vacation at Disneyland.
This wasn’t some run-of-the-mill immigration operation. It was the second-largest single-state ICE raid in U.S. history, targeting a marijuana operation in Ventura County. Authorities detained 319 illegal immigrants. Fourteen children, reportedly from Mexico and Honduras, were discovered working under what officials described as forced labor conditions. Among the workers was a man convicted of kidnapping and attempted rape. One of his prior convictions involved attempted child molestation.
The predator worked alongside ten minors. One of them was just 14.
That should have been a defining moment for California’s governor. He could have acknowledged the scope of the problem. He could have condemned the exploitation of children and expressed concern over the growing presence of cartel-connected labor in his state’s booming cannabis industry. Instead, he used the moment to fire off a bitter insult on social media.
“Hope you enjoy your family time, @JDVance. The families you’re tearing apart certainly won’t,” Newsom tweeted, referring to Vice President JD Vance, who was at Disneyland with his wife and children.
That was Newsom’s response. Not to the predators. Not to child labor on marijuana farms. Not to the illegal operation backed by a politically connected cannabis firm. His target was a father visiting California with his family.
If Newsom had been anywhere near his state when the raid occurred, perhaps he could have pleaded ignorance. But he wasn’t even in California. He was busy visiting churches in South Carolina, planting the early seeds for a 2028 presidential campaign.
The cannabis farm at the center of the raid, Glass House Farms, is no stranger to politics. Its co-founder and board director, Graham Farrar, donated to Newsom’s campaign in 2018 and has also contributed to other politicians. The operation is now under investigation for potential child labor law violations. That might be a scandal worthy of a governor’s attention, especially one who claims to care about children and equity.
At a moment when law enforcement was under physical attack… with protesters reportedly throwing bricks and even firing a handgun during the raid, the governor said nothing about the chaos. One worker died during the raid after falling from a 30-foot greenhouse structure. The situation was dangerous. The children involved were at risk of exploitation and trafficking. And yet, no statement. No press conference. No policy discussion.
Instead, Newsom chose to mock his political opponent and side with the crowd, hurling accusations of xenophobia.
This kind of response is part of a pattern. Newsom has a long history of elevating politics above the well-being of children. He prolonged school closures during COVID, despite mounting evidence of devastating impacts on learning and mental health. He signed legislation to shield schools from notifying parents if their children socially transition. Now, when children are found working in cartel-run marijuana operations, his only public comment is a cheap political jab.
The political left routinely blurs the line between legal and illegal immigration, using moral rhetoric to justify inaction. They present themselves as champions of immigrant families, but that commitment seems to vanish when immigrant children are the ones being trafficked, abused, or used for labor.
The raid in Ventura County revealed a deeply uncomfortable truth: California’s cannabis industry, hailed as a progressive success story, is laced with exploitation. The labor force includes undocumented immigrants and, in this case, children. There are allegations of cartel involvement, financial links to elected officials, and now, a federal investigation into child labor violations. Still, the state’s leadership would rather criticize law enforcement than confront the human cost of their permissive policies.
When ICE steps in to do the job California won’t, the reaction from the governor’s office isn’t concern for the children involved. It’s a social media post trashing the vice president.
This is not leadership. It’s evasion. And it raises a serious question: What does it take for Gavin Newsom to be outraged?
Not children working next to a sex offender. Not violence against federal agents. Not the exposure of systemic exploitation within one of the state’s most celebrated industries.
His outrage is reserved for political theater, for posturing against perceived enemies of progressivism, for casting legal immigration enforcement as cruelty while turning a blind eye to what actual cruelty looks like.
Newsom could have stood up and said child exploitation will not be tolerated in California. He could have stood with law enforcement and demanded better oversight of the cannabis industry. He could have called for the prosecution of those who enabled this abuse.
He did none of that.
He tweeted.
