Leonardo Espartaco Martinez, a U.S. Citizen and community watcher with the rapid response group VC Defensa in Ventura County, was violently detained by federal immigration agents in Simi Valley. Martinez was discharged from Los Robles Regional Medical Center at around noon on March 10.
The events started around 6:50 yesterday morning, when a fellow community patroller responded to a notification that several ICE agents and vehicles were in a residential neighborhood on Buyers Street in Simi Valley. After the agents pepper-sprayed the anonymous community member, Martinez came to their aid. Agents had reportedly left the scene, but returned about 45 minutes later when Martinez was on the scene.
Video footage shows agents in three vehicles that include a black Nissan Maxima, a blue Ford Expedition, and a black Chevrolet Tahoe, blocking and ramming into Mr. Martinez’s minivan as he attempted to reverse and pull away from the agents. A fourth vehicle, a black Nissan SUV, also pulled around behind Martinez’s minivan, from which a masked agent jumps out of the vehicle with an assault rifle, prompting the legal observer recording the incident to run in fear.
Martinez told L.A. TACO that officers from the Simi Valley Police Department arrived at the scene and told him they were there to ask him questions about the accident portion of the incident. He told him that before sharing anything with them, he wanted legal counsel.
According to Martinez, he attempted to cooperate with the agents when they approached his vehicle, broke his window, and dragged him out of the minivan without resisting arrest. The agents threw Martinez to the ground as he held his arms out for the agents to handcuff him.
Photographer Eric Anders recognized an emblem on an ICE agent’s hat on the scene that matches the one worn by an agent at MDC. The emblem is part of the official slogan of Fugitive Operations, a division under ERO, “Nequis Effugiat,” which means “no one can escape.”
Martinez sustained minor injuries to his knees, shoulders, and wrists, for which he was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center for treatment. Martinez’s minivan was impounded.
"We were there to legally observe, and after a morning of them pepper-spraying our volunteers and pointing guns at us, we didn't wanna lose sight of them or confront them," Martinez said to L.A. TACO. "They've been violent with us in the past, and we understand it's a necessary risk we have to take to protect our community."
Martinez’s lawyers, Reem Yassin and Thomas Harvey, told L.A. TACO that they tried for 45 minutes to have their client released from the hospital. Harvey alleges that the hospital staff, private security, and unidentified masked men “physically removed” Yassin and him from the emergency room.
Yassin told L.A. TACO that she was assaulted, a nurse pushed her, and an “ICE agent” slammed her right arm against the door to stop her from speaking to her client.
“One of the two people who were standing in his hospital room who would not leave us alone, so that we could have a private, confidential conversation with our client, admitted that, stated he was not an ICE agent, [but] rather that he was a federal contractor,” Harvey told L.A. TACO.
Yassin and Harvey asked the federal contractors whether Martinez was being detained, and they said he was not, but Martinez remained handcuffed to the bed.
The federal contractors detaining Martinez at the hospital were described as wearing plainclothes, windbreakers, and masks. The clothing they were wearing did not have identification on it, according to Martinez's lawyers. No warrant or other paperwork was provided to the lawyers to show that Martinez is in custody.
According to Yassin and Harvey, the federal contractors detaining Martinez told hospital staff they were federal agents but did not provide the hospital with any verification or supporting materials to prove they were affiliated with a law enforcement agency.
“I expect this kind of lawlessness from ICE; I don’t expect the hospitals to be complicit in that lawlessness and detain people. I think what we were able to do was demonstrate to them that they were furthering and participating in the denial of his constitutional rights,” Harvey told L.A. TACO.
“[Los Robles Regional Medical Center] just accepting handcuffs is not acceptable. We don't know who these two people were, and neither do the hospitals,” Yassin told L.A. TACO.
Yassin states that the federal contractors could not answer what their client was being charged with. She believes that there won’t be charges filed against her client, and that what happened was part of the federal immigration agencies' “intimidation tactics.”
Harvey tells L.A. TACO that neither the hospital nor the masked federal contractors could release Martinez; they had to wait for an ICE agent who instructed the contractors to let Martinez go. Harvey says he and Yassin saw ICE and Ventura County Sheriff agents leave the hospital, followed by Martinez walking out the door.
In the case of Milagro Solis Portillo in July of last year, outrage sparked at the Glendale Memorial Hospital after ICE agents injured the woman during her kidnapping, and detention officers were present in the room and lobby with Portillo. These privately contracted officers were even confused as ICE agents, creating a hostile environment.
L.A. TACO reporter, Izzy Ramirez, was on scene after her transfer to the Anaheim Global Medical Center, where detention officers monitored Portillo 24 hours a day for several days, who walked around with no identifiable markers and were confused for ICE agents.
Yassin told L.A. TACO she would consider what happened to her client a kidnapping. She asked the federal contractors “over and over again” for identification, she says.
“What they [ICE] could be charged with, though, they slammed into his vehicle,” said Yassin, “There is a pattern of this.”
ICE agents, on two previous occasions, have rammed into Martinez’s vehicle. Martinez states that just a few months ago, agents rammed his vehicle again, trying to detain him. That time, Martinez was able to drive away.
The first viral incident of Martinez being rammed and detained by ICE occurred on October 16. Martinez was on his regular community watch route, legally following an ICE vehicle, a silver Jeep, and documenting ICE agents who were conducting a raid in Oxnard.
In previous reporting on the October 16 incident, L.A. TACO reviewed exclusive dash cam footage showing the ICE vehicle rear-ending Martinez before coming to a stop. In the video, Martinez pulls forward slowly, and the Jeep speeds up and goes into oncoming traffic before ramming the rear door on the driver's side of Martinez’s vehicle. The Jeep's grill and bumper are damaged and hanging down.
The Jeep stops, and agents exit from the driver's and passenger's sides of the vehicle, then re-enter the Jeep. Martinez drives forward slowly down the street, and the Jeep catches up with him as he turns onto another street.
Secondary footage captured by a bystander and reviewed by L.A. TACO shows the vehicles circling each other. Martinez’s passenger driver's side is smashed in, and the rear light hangs off. No police lights are seen flashing in either video.
ICE initially told the Oxnard Police Department that Martinez’s vehicle had backed into them. However, video footage shows the unmarked ICE vehicle rear-ending Martinez. At the time of his arrest by ICE, Oxnard Police, HSI, and ICE agents were on scene.
Martinez was detained and taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. He was then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles, where he was later released at 3:02 p.m. on October 16, 2025.
Martinez says that no individuals were detained in Ventura County yesterday.
L.A. TACO reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, the Simi Valley Police Department, and Los Robles Regional Medical Center for comment on this incident. We will update this story if we hear back.
Los Robles Regional Medical Center security called the Ventura County Sheriff's dispatch center at 10:11 a.m. yesterday morning and requested deputies stand by while hospital security asked protesters to move to another area on the hospital grounds, according to Captain Rob Yoos.
Deputies arrived and found the protesters peaceful and compliant, no crime being committed, and no enforcement action was taken by the Ventura County Sheriff deputies. Captain Yoos said to his knowledge that there was no interaction with federal immigration agents and does not know if the deputies were on the interior or exterior of the facility during this time.
Martinez went to urgent care following his release for his injuries to be assessed.
The Simi Valley Police Department’s dispatch was contacted by ICE agents at 7:28 a.m. yesterday, and they alleged that a “known agitator” in a Blue Odyssey was following them, according to Sergeant Rick Morton. The agents alleged that the vehicle was driving "aggressively" and “almost causing a traffic collision.”
Officers responded to the 600 Block of Los Angeles Avenue, made contact with the driver, and advised them to make sure they were following all traffic laws. At 8:00 a.m. SVPD dispatch received another phone call from ICE agents who told them they were involved in a traffic collision. SVPD arrived on the 1800 Block North of Barnes Street and Buffum Street, where the same Blue Odyssey was present.
The ICE agents told SVPD that they were in the area for enforcement activity. They alleged to SVPD that Martinez almost hit an ICE agent with his vehicle, and that is why they attempted to detain him. The agents told SVPD that Martinez intentionally collided with their vehicle.
Agents alleged that they were attempting to prevent Martinez from leaving in his vehicle, and they said that's when he hit their vehicle with his, while he was attempting to flee. SVPD contacted one of the neighborhood residents who had a camera, but it was not working.
SVPD requested dashcam footage from ICE, but the angle of the camera was pointed upwards and did not capture the incident. Martinez was arrested by ICE.
SVPD attempted to obtain footage from Martinez’s dash cam, but he declined to share it with them. SVPD remained on the scene for crowd control as citizens gathered in the area.
