Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents conducted an operation targeting VC Defensa, including a prominent member, Leonardo Espartaco Martinez, in Ventura County on Wednesday night. The operation encompassed four locations and targeted three people. Martinez’s home and shop, and the homes of two other VC Defensa members were searched. Confiscated items included the organization's graphic t-shirts and three skateboards.
According to Reem Yassin, a lawyer representing VC Defensa, Wednesday’s raid was not the first time federal agents have targeted the immigrant empowerment organization and individuals linked to it. A coalition of lawyers is now preparing to file a federal restraining order against federal agents and agencies who have targeted VC Defensa.
”[T]here are pending lawsuits, currently, for what I like to call ‘attempted murder’ on Leo,” Yassin told L.A. TACO.
L.A. TACO reported on two incidents involving Martinez, both of which involved vehicle collisions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Most recently, an ICE agent rammed into Martinez’s vehicle on March 10, sending the legal observer to the hospital for allegedly interfering with an operation.
Yassin told L.A. TACO that there have been around 50 to 60 people who are members, activists, or volunteers with VC Defensa targeted by federal agents. She says they have been targeted by federal agencies through a combination of tactics like raids, searches, and seizures, including agents allegedly following people home and flashing their lights.
According to the New York Times, a case focused on VC Defensa revealed the existence of Homeland Security Task Force Group 4 assigned to investigate “organizations involved in illegal activities during protests.”
Yassin tells L.A. TACO that no current member of VC Defensa has been convicted of any federal charges as a result of these tactics.
“We keep seeing special agent Diaz, so that’s what we plan on doing: filing a civil lawsuit for harassment, because this is harassment at this point,” she says. “They rammed into [Martinez’s] vehicle three times. They t-boned him, t-boned his vehicle, causing lots of injuries…they have teargassed [VC Defensa], they have pepper-sprayed them.”
According to Jesse Ruiz, another lawyer also representing VC Defensa, the warrant presented to Martinez only had his name on it, but his mother Laura Valdez Gonzalez’s property was also searched and seized during the operation. Valdez’s vehicle was searched and her desktop was taken, according to Yassin.
According to a DHS ICE document shared with L.A. TACO by Yassin, the following items were taken: “misc docs,” three skateboards, gold colored knife, four maps, USB drive, four radios, poster, LPR card, T-shirt, shield, long knife, motorola phone, transmitter, and receiver.
“When you search a mother’s car that is nowhere on the property, that’s not listed within the curtilage of the property…or the area of the property. It shows it’s a form of harassment,” said Ruiz.
Martinez was startled awake around 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning by loud noises outside of his home in Oxnard, he told L.A. TACO. Over the loud PA speakers, he heard his name and his home address being yelled. He saw lights and knew, at that point, that his home was being raided. He was not surprised. He had many conversations about retaliation from the federal government for his work as a community advocate over the past year.
He woke his mom, told her to put on her clothes and shoes, then made sure to use the restroom and put on a sweater and shoes. As they approached the front door, he says, he could hear the federal agents attempting to smash it open. He says the agents did end up smashing it when they got there.
“[A]ll the guns pointed at us, all the lights pointed at us, told us to walk backwards with our hands up,” says Martinez, “And once we got outside, they put cuffs on me and brought me and my mom over to the side of one of their heavily militarized vehicles that they had in the middle of the street.”
Martinez says their home was surrounded by federal vehicles and that federal agents with lots of gear ransacked everything in his home.
In video footage shared with L.A. TACO by VC Defensa, federal agents in militarized gear can be seen standing on the street. Another video shows drawers rifled through and documents on a couch and floor. The front door is chipped where agents forced themselves through.
The front door of Martinez’s shop can be seen ajar, surrounded by bits of glass from a shattered window that was damaged during the raid, according to video footage shared with L.A. TACO by VC Defensa.
Yassin states that one of the other search warrants was carried out on a community activist at her home with her boyfriend and two minor children, one being on the spectrum. She alleges that the federal agents confiscated multiple electronics, including devices that belonged to her children.
L.A. TACO reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, who sent three separate statements from an unnamed spokesperson.
“On May 13, HSI executed several search warrants on individuals associated with an anti-ICE organization. Several members of this organization have been previously arrested for “ambushing federal law enforcement and destruction of government property. Several items were seized as part of search warrants.”
“This remains an ongoing investigation. To protect its integrity, we are unable to provide additional details at this time.”
“Under President Trump, if you assault law enforcement officers, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
In a press conference on Thursday morning outside the Robert Young Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, a crowd gathered to hear speakers from VC Defensa, National Day Laborers Association, Valley Defensa, 805 Undocufund, and Party for Socialism and Liberation, to denounce the Wednesday raid by federal agents.
“To the government, you are never going to find anything. And why? Because there is nothing unlawful to be found. This has been continuous and systematic harassment,” said Yassin.
