They didn’t arrest George Retes — they abducted him. Let’s call it what it is. On July 10th, 2025, ICE agents smashed through the window of his car, pepper-sprayed him in the face, tackled him to the ground like an enemy combatant, and then vanished him. George Retes is a 25-year-old disabled U.S. Army veteran. He is a U.S. citizen. But that didn’t matter. Not to the badge-wearing cowards who swept through Camarillo, California like thugs on a purge night, armed with the full force of a government that no longer feels bound by law, reason, or humanity.
And now? George Retes is missing. His family has no idea where he is. The local sheriff has no clue, the city police can’t help, the county officials pretend their hands are tied. Every institution that is supposed to keep citizens safe and accounted for is shrugging its shoulders, as if a man can just be snatched off the street and dropped into some Kafkaesque black site without consequence. This is what state-sponsored kidnapping looks like when it wears a federal badge.
The Carrillo Law Firm is now representing George’s family, and they’re not mincing words. This was an abduction. The firm knows the playbook well—they’re already handling a disturbingly similar case involving Andrea Velez, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen who was kidnapped by ICE agents during a prior raid. It took them more than a day just to locate her, because ICE operates like a rogue paramilitary, shuffling detainees like pawns between jails and detention centers, ensuring that families and attorneys are always one step behind.
George wasn’t even part of the protests that flared up when ICE invaded Glass House Farms. He was doing his job—working security. But ICE doesn’t need cause anymore. They saw a brown-skinned man, decided they didn’t like the way he looked, and treated his military service and citizenship like a clerical error they could correct with handcuffs and brute force. This wasn’t law enforcement. This was a rogue agency acting like the Gestapo, punishing the public for existing while Latino.
We don’t know where George is. His family doesn’t know. His lawyers don’t know. Nobody knows. There are only guesses—Ventura County Jail, the ICE Los Angeles Field Office, Adelanto ICE Processing Center, Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, Otay Mesa in San Diego. Places with reputations for dehumanization, violence, and neglect. Places that turn human beings into numbers and numbers into ghosts. ICE isn’t talking because they don’t have to. They have the cover of bureaucracy and the implicit backing of a government that has decided some citizens are worth less than others. Due process? Habeas corpus? Constitutional protections? Those are bedtime stories for children now.
What ICE is doing isn’t just morally obscene — it’s legally criminal. Under 42 U.S. Code § 1983, every federal agent who strips a citizen of their constitutional rights can be held personally liable. That includes the ICE agents who destroyed George Retes’s car, attacked him, and dragged him away. It includes the supervisors who ordered it, the bureaucrats who processed it, and the cowards who stood by watching. Americans have been tackled, beaten, pepper-sprayed, and hidden away — all under the guise of national security, all while their families suffer in confusion and grief. Every time this happens, a piece of the Constitution is set on fire, and ICE lights the match.
This is terrorism funded by your tax dollars. This is what America looks like when its own government decides that some of us don’t count, that citizenship is conditional, and that veterans who fought for the country can be discarded like defective equipment. George Retes is gone because ICE wanted him gone, and the system is built to make sure nobody answers for that.
The Carrillo Law Firm is demanding answers, but they’re doing more than that — they’re offering to help any family of a U.S. citizen who’s been abducted by ICE, and they’re doing it with no upfront cost. If your loved one has disappeared under the boots of these fascist thugs, call them at 626-799-9375. They know how to navigate this nightmare. They know how to track the untrackable. And when they find your loved one, they know how to burn the bastards who did it in court.
We will not shut up about George Retes. We will not let this go. If ICE can disappear a disabled Army veteran, then none of us are safe. They aren’t deporting anymore — they’re disappearing. And unless we fight back, unless we call it what it is, they’ll keep doing it until no one is left to protest.
This post has been syndicated from Closer to the Edge, where it was published under this address.