Leo Martinez held aloft a black paper bag.

"I brought you guys a gift. This is what they brought us yesterday," Martinez, an organizer with activist network VC Defensa, told the crowd gathered in front of Oxnard City Hall on the afternoon of July 11.

He tipped the bag. A potpourri of spent crowd control canisters and projectiles tumbled onto the sidewalk.

"That is what they met us with us yesterday," Martinez said.

Federal immigration agents raided Glass House Farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria on July 10, clashing with demonstrators and sweeping up at least 200 people, including farmworkers and activists. The greenhouse complex is one of the state's largest licensed cannabis farms.

As farmworker families and immigration advocates spent the next day untangling the snarl left by the all-day operation, roughly 250 demonstrators gathered in downtown Oxnard to protest the raid.

Rosemary King drove into Oxnard from Simi Valley to attend what VC Defensa called an "emergency mobilization" on social media.

"I just had to do something," King said. "Seeing those poor farmworkers running through those fields broke my heart. Every country needs immigration laws, but this is beyond."

The Thursday raid, which began in the morning and dragged past sunset, was one of the largest in Ventura County in recent memory, even after a month of increased deportation efforts by the Trump administration in the county's agricultural communities and beyond.

Oxnard police approached the July 11 demonstration with caution in the wake of the sometimes chaotic July 10 clash between federal agents and protesters, Police Chief Jason Benites said.

"Always best to be especially prepared versus caught on our heels," Benites said in a text message.

The Department of Homeland Security alleged in a July 11 statement that people damaged vehicles during the confrontation and one individual fired a gun. Four people, described as U.S. citizens, were being processed for charges including assault or resisting officers, the agency said.

The July 11 Oxnard protest, though, stayed peaceful, and police kept out of sight. Benites said that the demonstration was without significant issues through 8 p.m., when much of the crowd had dispersed.

After a round of speeches, the protest turned into the street. Demonstrators took over half of Oxnard Boulevard, marching in a long, slow loop and chanting. A honking caravan of trucks followed behind, flying flags.

As the marchers moved, people stepped out of shops to record videos and watch. One man rushed out of a restaurant to the sidewalk, yelling. "I stand with you guys! I stand with you," he bellowed.

After the march looped back to City Hall, many demonstrators remained. Carlos Cobian carried a sign with a long quote from the "Diary of Anne Frank."

"Terrible things are happening outside," the January 1943 quote read. "Men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared."

Demonstrators march through downtown Oxnard on July 11 to protest a federal immigration raid at a farm outside Camarillo the day before.

Cobian said he'd been handed the poster by another demonstrator but that the words rang true.

"Things haven't really changed if you think about it," he said.

Leticia Galvez stood on a street corner next to her daughter, Sophia Mateo, who waved a combined U.S.-Mexico flag. The duo had been at the July 10 immigration raid and the next day drove into Oxnard from Camarillo.

"(This flag) represents us," Galvez said. "It represents me coming here from Mexico 45 years ago, becoming legal, having my American child and still being discriminated against for being brown."

"But we stand behind both flags," Galvez said, "because this is who we are."

Isaiah Murtaugh covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at [email protected] or on Signal at 951-966-0914.