July 14, 2025Updated July 15, 2025, 9:44 a.m. CTPhilosophy lecturer was released from federal custody on July 14.Supporters packed into federal courtroom in Los Angeles.Body camera footage shows Caravello unsuccessfully kicking can then picking up and throwing it, complaint says.This story has been updated with new information.CSU Channel Islands professor John Caravello was released on bail from federal custody in Los Angeles July 14, four days after his arrest during an immigration raid at a greenhouse farm outside Camarillo.U.S. Central District Judge Maria Audero ordered Caravello's release — subject to location monitoring and a curfew — and set his bail at $15,000 during the afternoon hearing.Federal prosecutors filed a complaint alleging that Caravello, 37, threw a tear gas canister toward federal officers during a clash between U.S. Border Patrol agents and demonstrators on Laguna Road outside Glass House Farm. The greenhouse complex is one of the state's largest licensed cannabis farms.The complaint alleges that Caravello violated a federal code that prohibits assault on federal officers.The California Faculty Association said in a July 11 statement that the professor, an active member of the CSU faculty union, was attempting to dislodge a tear gas canister from underneath a bystander's wheelchair when Caravello was taken down by officers and arrested. Both the union and CSUCI officials said Caravello is a U.S. citizen.Federal agents arrested hundreds of farmworkers during a July 10 raid at Glass House outside Camarillo and at another of the cannabis grower's facilities in Carpinteria.On July 14, the Department of Homeland Security put count a 361 people — all alleged to be undocumented immigrants — and said the department is processing criminal charges against four U.S. citizens.The increased tally, up from 200 July 11, makes the raid one of the largest immigration operations of the Trump administration, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on July 13.On the afternoon of July 14, three dozen people, many of them supporters of Caravello, packed into a sixth-floor court room at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles.Caravello emerged into the courtroom clothed in faded denim and a light pink T-shirt: the same shade as the one captured in a July 10 image attached to the federal complaint. The professor, an active participant in protests at CSUCI and in the surrounding community, appeared without the trademark glasses.Caravello shuffled their fingers behind their back as they replied to questions from Audero.After the judge ordered Caravello released, the group of supporters clustered around attorney Knut Johnson in the courtroom's echoing hallway."We know what the accusations are. We know when we go back to court. Now, we fight," Johnson said.CFA celebrated the release of Caravello, a former vice president of the union's CSUCI chapter.“Professor Caravello’s freedom is the result of collective action," said Margarita Berta-Ávila, the union's president and a Sacramento State professor. “Jonathan is a deeply committed educator and mentor who showed up for their students and immigrant communities—and for that, they were targeted. Their release sends a powerful message: when we organize and raise our voices together, we win."Caravello is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 1 at the Roybal courthouse.CSUCI officials said July 12 they are closely monitoring Caravello's case, but that they believed the professor was participating in a constitutionally protected protest."The California State University remains committed to the principles of free expression, academic freedom, and due process," the university statement says.What does the criminal complaint say?Virginia Pulido, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, wrote in a criminal complaint that a group of U.S. Border Patrol agents blocked off Laguna Road, east of Glass House, on July 10 while federal agents searched the greenhouse complex.A crowd of a few dozen protesters massed in front of the Border Patrol agents, Pulido wrote. One of the group was Caravello, who held a megaphone. With difficulty, the agents attempted to clear a path for federal vehicles trying to depart the farm.When protesters did not disperse, the Border Patrol agents began to toss tear gas canisters into the crowd, Pulido wrote, with one landing at Caravello's feet.Body camera footage shows Caravello unsuccessfully attempting to kick the canister, the complaint says, before picking the device up and throwing it. An unidentified Border Patrol agent said the canister flew "several feet" over the heads of law enforcement officers.The complaint includes a close-up screenshot of body camera footage showing an individual in a floral shirt, purportedly Caravello, bending toward the asphalt road.Caravello departed, the complaint says, and returned to the standoff two hours later wearing a pink T-shirt. At 5:53 p.m., Border Patrol agents identified Caravello as an "agitator" who had thrown tear gas canisters at agents. They approached him from behind and arrested him as he struggled.Isaiah Murtaugh covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or on Signal at 951-966-0914.