When ICE vehicles were spotted near an industrial area in Oxnard on the morning of Oct. 16, Leo Martinez, a key organizer with Ventura County Defensa (VC Defensa), sprang into action. He drove to the location in his Nissan pickup truck and began tracking the unmarked ICE vehicles, making sure to keep a safe distance.
After a few uneventful minutes, one of the vehicles Martinez was shadowing, a silver Jeep, began aggressively chasing Martinez, speeding up and slowing down erratically as they headed westbound on Mountain View Avenue.
“When we were going around in circles in the middle of an intersection I said, ‘Alright well lets touch on these brakes, lets see how good my brakes are right now.’ And after I brake checked them and they hit me, that got them really mad," he said. “That’s when they came in to hit me on the driver’s side.”
Soon after being rear-ended, Martinez was intentionally T-boned by the Jeep on the passenger door of the driver’s side of his truck. Martinez kept driving, fearing that if he pulled over, the immigration agents would brutalize him.
“The minute that they hit me, and I knew I was going to get arrested, I called the rest of the team,” said Martinez, a U.S. citizen. “If they’re going to drag me out of the car and beat me up, I need to have some witnesses at least.”
By then, Oxnard police had received a road rage call from an uninvolved witness who had reported that a silver Jeep had rammed a black truck, according to police records obtained by KEYT. About 10 minutes later, police received a call from an unnamed ICE agent who claimed that they began to pursue Martinez after he backed into one of their vehicles and later made a sharp turn that caused the T-bone crash. The ICE agent reported that Martinez was causing a “safety incident” and requested backup from police.
Footage of the encounter captured on Martinez's dashcam, rearview camera, and on a bystander's cellphone supports Martinez’s telling of the event and contradicts what the ICE agent reported to police.
ICE continued to follow Martinez to Oxnard Boulevard and Eighth Street, where he pulled over when he heard the sirens of Oxnard police patrol cars. A crowd of 60 to 80 people had begun to gather at the scene, according to the police records. Martinez was arrested by the immigration agents, put into an unmarked white SUV, and taken to a federal immigration detention center in Downtown Los Angeles. Within hours, he was released and met with community members and fellow activists who had been rallying outside the federal building.
“What we learned from this experience is that ICE agents lie to police officers, so now we have dashcams in our cars that record everything. All of our patrollers have a dashcam,” Martinez added.
Federal immigration agents have repeatedly been caught making false claims to police and in court filings. Martinez says he was told by authorities he was being released from the detention center pending charges but was not told the nature of those charges.
Organizers with VC Defensa, an immigrant rights advocacy group, continue to patrol their neighborhoods on the lookout for ICE vehicles. Once spotted, they, alert the surrounding community of ICE’s presence using a bullhorn or a whistle.
“In this county, we’ve been able to change how ICE operates fundamentally,” said Martinez.
The work that VC Defensa is doing draws on a rich history of organizing in the region. Oxnard is long celebrated for its agricultural heritage and its history of labor organizing, including the 1903 Japanese-Mexican Labor Association, the 1933 Betabelero (sugar beet workers) Strike, the 1974 United Farm Workers strawberry and celery strike for better wages, and the 1994 UFW protest at Dole’s office over unfair labor practices. Now, this region is stepping up to protect its immigrant community in the face of ICE's roving snatch squads.
Martinez compliments VC Defensa for how quickly they were able to mobilize to his defense during his arrest and detainment, “This is a testament to all the work we’ve done for months.”
If you wish to volunteer for VC Defensa, you can fill out their intake form here. Additional reporting by Kevin Flores.
Help us unleash The Southlander! Our team of talented journalists are itching to start publishing investigative reporting. But we first need to reach our goal of $2,000 in monthly subscriptions. You can help by signing up for a paid subscription below. Subscriptions start at only $5 a month and it only takes a few seconds to upgrade.
It has been a long year for us at The Southlander and probably you too. We have been working behind the scenes to build this organization from the ground up. From filing incorporation documents and creating org policies to applying for grants and working to obtain media liability insurance, the folks at the Southlander have been putting in countless hours to help make this a reality. We have been out at local events and speaking at conferences to try and share our vision for the investigative newsroom that we feel the residents of the Greater LA area need and deserve.
And so we want to thank everyone that has joined us over this past year that shares that vision. We want to thank Report of America and Tiny News Collective for providing guidance in some key areas of establishing this organization.
And this is only the beginning. All the work that we have done this year has laid the foundation for what we will be able to do in 2026. We have so many things that we cannot wait to bring you in the new year: investigations that have been cooking for months, interviews with people impacted by ICE raids, and a podcast on the complexity and cruelty of immigration detention. Until then, we want to leave 2025 sharing some interviews from this year.
Kevin Flores
Abraham Márquez
The Southlander
The Southlander
Finally, here are some stories that Southlander journalists have published in other publications recently.
Ben Camacho
A five year investigation into an LAPD shooting offered a rarely-seen inside look at how LAPD investigates itself. Data released showed rare instances where LAPD failed to adhere to search warrant procedures.
Ben Camacho
A former police manager was awarded almost $3 million in a retaliation case against the city of Santa Ana and its police department.
On Oct. 18, The Empire Files premiered its highly anticipated film about the devastating impact our environment and planet are experiencing due to the United States military-industrial complex. Titled “Earth’s Greatest Enemy,” it follows journalists Abby Martin and Mike Prysner who spent years researching, studying, and traveling the world to report on the effects of the military's massive carbon footprint.
The documentary follows the filmmakers as they interview activists on the Japanese island of Okinawa, confront Nancy Pelosi at Glasgow’s COP26, visit the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska, and jump on a helicopter at the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, the world’s largest international maritime warfare drill.
The film's creators started the project five years ago, but it is part of their ongoing body of work as investigative journalists. Martin has reported on the U.S. war machine throughout her career, and Prysner, a U.S. Army veteran, has dedicated his life since returning from Iraq to exposing U.S. war crimes and lies by speaking out and organizing anti-war protests.
“The military is essentially a worshiped and revered institution in this country,” Martin told Southlander journalist Morgan Keith. “A lot of Americans have no idea that we live in a global military empire. When you say the word empire, they think you're talking about ‘Star Wars.’”
In addition to their individual work, they launched The Empire Files in 2015, an interview and documentary series in which they’ve reported from the West Bank, Venezuela, Colombia, the Amazon, and much more.
“Like our first documentary film, ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom,’ we want this film to serve as a tool for activists and organizers across the country to help more people understand how capitalism and U.S. imperialism are at the heart of climate change,” said Prysner at the premiere.
At the premiere, both Martin and Prysner talked about the challenge of tackling such a massive project. “The more we looked, the more it grew,” Martin said. As the world heads toward climate catastrophe, the filmmakers say, the military’s excessive role in causing that crisis cannot be ignored.
“When we (Martin and Prysner) had our first child, we were kind of just overwhelmed with the cataclysmic changes on the horizon when it comes to climate change, and we were alarmed at the lack of reporting of the intersection of these two issues, war and empire,” Martin said.“And then, when I just dug deeper and deeper and realized that the military is excluded from all these climate treaties, that militarism, I mean, it supersedes basically any endangered habitat. The military can basically override any body, the EPA, and can go anywhere where it wants under the pretense of national security.”
The U.S. military operates on a scale that reaches nearly every part of the world, and the environmental damage it causes is enormous. It emits more carbon pollution than any other single institution on Earth, and according to some estimates, more than entire nations combined.
One of the ironies of the situation, according to the film, is that those most immediately impacted by the military's pollution are often members of the military themselves. It's a population already saddled with high homelessness rates, VA benefits that have become increasingly privatized, and heightened deportation risks for non-citizen veterans. Add to that exposure to toxic U.S. military dump zones and the resulting long-term health effects.
“What I think a lot of people don't realize is that a lot of the victims of military pollution are their own service members, and they lie and they lie and they lie and they cover it up and they cover it up, and then when it's finally exposed, they deny the claims until these people are all dead, whether we're talking about burn pits or Agent Orange exposure,” Martin said. “The story is all the same.”
Watch a trailer for “Earth’s Greatest Enemy.” The film is currently being screened around the country and will be available to rent or purchase online in the future.
The ICE raids have not stopped, yet much of the mainstream media has moved on. Southland residents whose loved ones have been taken by the federal government’s de facto secret police force are left picking up the pieces. Some, like Narciso Barranco, have been allowed to return home while they fight their deportation case.
“The Trauma of ICE Terror” is precisely about what that is like for a family here in the Southland.
Kevin Flores
We were recently awarded our first grant: the Spark Fund grant! 👏
This grant, $1,000, is specifically for professional development so we are allocating it for Southlander investigative reporter Morgan Keith’s ongoing higher education. For those who don’t know, Morgan is pursuing a master’s degree in journalism. She has been diligently working on a podcast about Southland residents navigating the labyrinth that is the U.S. immigration system that will be releasing soon.
This grant comes at a crucial time for us as we continue to work on our first stories and work towards publishing original reporting. We’d like to shout out the Tiny News Collective, which we are members of, for this grant!
However, it is with your support that we will be fully-funded and sustainable. Reoccurring donations allows us to budget for the long haul and keep working towards unleashing The Southlander.
Help us unleash The Southlander! Our team of talented journalists are itching to start publishing investigative reporting. Help us reach our first major goal of $2,000 in monthly subscriptions. Paid subscriptions start at only $5 a month and it only takes a few seconds to upgrade.
Ben Camacho
Mass surveillance systems, ICE’s incoming 24/7 social media surveillance team and a quiet $1/year lease for a new police substation…here is Ben Camacho’s latest.
Abraham Marquez
Establishment Democrat Jimmy Gomez is once again locking arms with AIPAC for next year’s congressional seat race (CA-34). Abe Márquez’s latest is here.
Ben Camacho
Current and former Santa Ana cops testified about retaliation, harassment and discrimination claims in this long-awaited trial about SAPD’s gang-like activity. Read it on Ben Camacho’s Substack.
Narciso Barranco spent 24 days locked up after being violently arrested by a snatch squad of federal immigration agents in Santa Ana on June 21.
Barranco, an undocumented landscaper, has been in the U.S. for over 30 years. On the day of his arrest, he was weeding outside of an IHOP.
"I came for the same reason, well, I think, like many families that arrive in this country. To find a life where we can better ourselves a bit and have more to offer our family," Barranco said.
Videos of his arrest went viral on social media. Masked agents can be seen macing and pinning Barranco to the ground, then repeatedly punching him in the head and neck before shoving him into the back of an SUV with a baton.
Barranco says he is still healing from the mental, emotional, and physical toll the arrest and detention took on him, a trauma that is being inflicted on thousands of immigrants across the nation.
Nearly 60,000 immigrants are being held in ICE detention facilities, representing a 50% increase from 39,000 immigrants held during the Biden administration in December 2024, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of ICE detention statistics.
“There are things from your childhood that you remember when you’re grown and they still hurt, after 40-some years. Now imagine this, it’s barely been two, three, it’s going on three months. It’s a struggle that’s going to take time,” Barranco said.
He was released on bond from the for-profit ICE detention center in Adelanto operated by Geo Group, Inc. His deportation case is pending and has forced him and his family to contemplate whether they will be torn apart by a border.
…But we truly cannot without your sustaining support. From ideation to production to post-production, this documentary took, collectively, over 100 hours of work – all on top of our day jobs. Beautifully and powerfully telling Narciso and Martha’s story required multiple reporting trips, building trust, stitching media together, research, transcribing and translating interview audio, and much more. It becomes a work of art that tells the story of some of our most impacted community members.
We do this so that you, and everyone you share this with, has a grounded understanding of one of the most important stories of our time: the terror that is being waged in working-class immigrant neighborhoods at the hands of federal agents acting as secret police.
We want to continue doing this important work but to do so we need your help. Upgrade your subscription if you already have one. Become a paid subscriber. We’re just over halfway to our fundraising goal. Please help us get there!
Help us unleash The Southlander! Our team of talented journalists are itching to start publishing investigative reporting. Help us reach our goal of $2,000 in monthly subscriptions. Paid subscriptions start at only $5 a month and it only takes a few seconds to upgrade.
Ben Camacho
Southlander reporter Ben Camacho wrote about Santa Ana cops complaining about comments made by a councilmember. Two of the three cops at the center of the complaints are currently being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice for the shooting death of Noe Rodriguez.
Abraham Márquez
Camacho and fellow Southlander Abe Márquez wrote about the LAPD seeking permission to shoot reporters with kinetic munitions at the “No Kings” protest in an ongoing legal battle between journalists and the LAPD.
Abraham Marquez
Márquez also wrote about Chicano psychedelic band Levitation Room’s come up. From East LA and San Gabriel Valley garages to a world tour, here’s their story.
As journalists, we recognize that we need to lead the fight against the onslaught of authoritarian attacks on the free press. We believe our worker-led model makes us as impervious as possible to these types of restrictions and intimidation tactics. For one, we don’t have a billionaire owner that cozies up to an autocrat who ordered a reporter's murder.
This started as a passion project that was initially sustained by the team’s time, labor, and wallets.
But here’s the bottom line: We need your help now. We need to raise $2,000 in monthly subscription revenue to start publishing original reporting. That number covers our ongoing expenses and allows us to budget for the work we actually set out to do: Journalism.
If you are currently on a free subscription, please consider contributing to The Southlander by signing up for a paid subscription. Subscriptions start as low as $5 a month. If you wish to make a one-time, tax-deductible donation, please reach out directly and we will connect you with our fiscal sponsor, Report For America. Big thank you to those who have already signed up as paid subscribers, you’ve helped us get nearly a third of the way to our goal!! 🎉💵
While you've only seen a little bit of our journey to create The Southlander, this newsroom has been in the works for almost an entire year. Check out this behind-the-scenes look into why we are building the first worker-led newsroom in Greater LA. In this short documentary, you’ll hear our perspectives on why an investigative news co-op is needed, especially in the Southland. It was produced by co-founder Morgan Keith, as a final project toward her master’s degree at Cal State University, Northridge.
