A U.S. citizen and Army veteran who was detained by federal agents during a summertime raid in Southern California attended Tuesday's State of the Union address, as a representation that "everything's not OK."
George Retes, a U.S. Army veteran, was a guest of Congressman Mark Takano (D) at Tuesday's State of the Union address. Retes recently made national headlines after he was detained by ICE agents near a Camarillo cannabis farm where he worked.
It was July when federal immigration authorities said they [arrested more than 300 immigrants](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-than-300-arrested-immigration-raids-southern-california-farms-feds/) suspected of being in the country illegally on two California cannabis farm sites. In a statement, DHS said that authorities executed criminal search warrants in Carpinteria and Camarillo.
Retes said he was driving to work at the Camarillo site when he came across agents blocking the roadway to the farm.
"I come to a stop. I'm not aggressive; I'm a good distance away. I get out of my car, I identify myself as a U.S. citizen just trying to get to work," Retes said, noting also that he made it clear he was not a protester.
During the raid, crowds of people gathered outside Glass House Farms in Camarillo, protesting immigration enforcement.
"They trapped me in my car with tear gas. They ended up breaking my driver's side window, pepper-spraying me in my face, and even though I was confined with them, not resisting, they still felt the need to have one officer on my neck and another officer on my back to detain me," Retes said.
After the detainment, Retes said he was taken to a Navy base in Port Hueneme, where they took his fingerprints, DNA, and photo.
"After that, they transported me to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where they held me for three days and three nights, on suicide watch, naked in a cell with lights on, from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon," he said.
Retes said he's suing the United States government; he filed his claim last week. "I believe my case is one of the first cases to come out of the Federal Tort Claims Act against ICE."
"But hopefully, it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, and they don't let this happen or disappear," he said.
So why attend the State of the Union address? "Not everything in this country is great. Not everything is going according to plan," Retes said.
While he thought President Trump's honoring the military service members with the Medal of Honor was "amazing," Retes said what wasn't addressed during the ceremony was more glaring.
"He made it seem like everything is all cherry and peachy and everything is all good, but that's not the case when you have people in the gallery like me who were, um, I guess assaulted and detained illegally by ICE," Retes said. "And then you have survivors of the Epstein list also in the gallery, with no attention at all."
Homeland Security released the following statement on Oct. 1, 2025: "As U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE agents were executing criminal search warrants on July 10 at the marijuana sites in Camarillo, CA, George Retes—a U.S. citizen—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."