Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Los Angeles. Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided four southern California museums and an art gallery, as part of a multi-year investigation into alleged illegal smuggling of Southeast Asian and Native American artifacts. The museums targeted were the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)
Los Angeles, California – A California State University Channel Islands professor remains at the center of a growing controversy after being taken into federal custody during a protest in Camarillo last week—an incident that has triggered public outrage, sharp denials from federal officials, and renewed questions about the rights of American citizens engaging in constitutionally protected dissent.
Jonathan Anthony Caravello, a 37-year-old math and philosophy lecturer at CSU Channel Islands, was participating in a community protest near Glass House Farms, a cannabis cultivation site, when federal agents detained him under murky circumstances. According to multiple eyewitnesses and a statement from the California Faculty Association (CFA), Caravello was attempting to assist a protest observer in a wheelchair when agents released tear gas into the crowd. One canister reportedly landed close to the individual, prompting Caravello to intervene. Seconds later, he was tackled by masked agents and taken away in an unmarked vehicle without explanation.
The CFA, which represents faculty members across the CSU system, initially reported Caravello’s disappearance on social media, describing the incident as a “kidnapping” carried out by “unidentified ICE agents.” They said federal agents held Caravello for more than 24 hours without access to medication or legal representation.
CSU Channel Islands confirmed the professor’s arrest in a public statement Sunday, describing his participation in the protest as peaceful and explicitly affirming the university’s support for the First Amendment. “If confirmed,” the statement read, “we stand with elected officials and community leaders calling for his immediate release.” The university also reaffirmed its commitment to “free expression, academic freedom, and due process.”
But that same evening, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli disputed the CFA’s characterization, stating that Caravello was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement officers—a violation of federal statute 18 USC 111, which criminalizes assault on federal officials. Essayli emphasized that Caravello was not “kidnapped,” as some claimed, but rather taken into custody in connection with a federal criminal charge.
Assaulting a federal officer can carry a sentence ranging from one year for simple assault to up to ten years if a weapon is involved or injury results. Department of Homeland Security officials echoed Essayli’s account, alleging that Caravello’s actions posed a threat to federal personnel on the scene.
Still, questions remain about the conditions of the arrest, the lack of initial identification by federal agents, and the delay in notifying Caravello’s family or legal counsel—particularly given that he is a U.S. citizen and a member of the faculty at a public university.
Late Saturday, the CFA confirmed that Caravello had been located and was in contact with his family, but did not disclose where the federal government is holding him. With legal proceedings now pending, the case raises profound concerns about protest rights, the use of federal force, and how quickly those rights can be eroded—even for citizens on their home soil.
