Homeland Security Hit the Home of California’s Most Notorious ICE Agitator in a Ventura County Raid

Leo Martinez spent months stalking ICE agents trying to catch sex offenders.

Now dozens of federal agents just showed up at his front door.

They came at 3 am – and this time, Martinez was the one in handcuffs.

How the VC Defensa Rapid Response Network Worked

Homeland Security Investigations agents descended on Martinez's Ventura County home Wednesday morning as part of a coordinated sweep hitting multiple California locations – Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, San Bernardino, and Corona.

Martinez – a lead organizer for VC Defensa, the anti-ICE surveillance network that drew national attention last October – stood in a black hoodie, handcuffed, flanked by HSI and Ventura County law enforcement.

Agents gathered evidence from inside the home.

HSI declined to detail the nature of the investigation.

"To protect the integrity of the investigation, we are unable to provide additional details at this time," an agency spokesperson told reporters on scene. "We will share further information when it becomes appropriate."

No arrests were made Wednesday. But an active federal investigation is now open on the man who spent the last year telling the world he would never stop following ICE.

Martinez and VC Defensa don't just protest.

They run organized surveillance operations against ICE agents in the field.

Volunteers patrol neighborhoods in vehicles, track ICE convoys in real time, post agent locations on social media to warn illegal migrants before operations can be completed, and film agents at close range to intimidate them during arrests.

The October 2025 incident that made Martinez famous started exactly this way.

ICE had a targeted operation running in Oxnard – hunting a registered sex offender from Mexico who had entered the country illegally.

DHS confirmed the target's status in their official statement.

Martinez was there anyway, following agents, circling the operation zone.

The confrontation ended with a vehicle collision and Martinez in federal custody – briefly.

He was released hours later and immediately announced he would return to monitoring ICE operations the following day.

Two VC Defensa members – Isai Carrillo and his sister Virginia Reyes – were charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer in October 2025, stemming from a separate July incident at a Ventura County cannabis farm.

Martinez called those charges a scare tactic and promised his group wouldn't stop.

Wednesday's 3 a.m. raid suggests federal investigators haven't forgotten that promise.

Federal Obstruction Charges Are Already Following VC Defensa

This is not an isolated story.

The Trump administration has spent the past year systematically rolling up anti-ICE surveillance networks across the country.

Over 650 people had been charged with obstructing federal officers as of February 2026, according to Reuters.

The Broadview Six in Chicago. Obstruction cases in Minnesota. Charges brought against observers, organizers, and network coordinators from Southern California to the Twin Cities.

The mechanism is straightforward.

VC Defensa's tactics – posting ICE agent locations publicly so targets can flee before arrest – don't just inconvenience enforcement operations.

They allow registered sex offenders, fugitives, and criminal aliens to escape federal custody.

Every time Martinez's network tips off a target, the predator walks.

Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino made the administration's position clear to his agents from the beginning: the orders to shut down interference groups came from the top.

The federal government has now spent nearly a year building cases.

Social media records. Text messages. Surveillance footage. Video evidence of dozens of operations disrupted.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani – commenting on the October 2025 VC Defensa charges – put it simply: "Video doesn't lie."

Wednesday's early-morning sweep suggests HSI has been watching Martinez just as closely as he's been watching them.

This Is What Newsom Built

Martinez spent months framing himself as a hero standing between his community and federal tyranny.

What he was actually doing was running an organized operation to help criminals evade arrest.

The sex offender ICE was hunting in Oxnard that October morning was real.

And none of this happens without California's sanctuary infrastructure giving groups like VC Defensa the political cover to operate openly.

Gavin Newsom spent years building a state where ICE agents get harassed, tracked, and filmed – and the people doing it get celebrated on the local news.

Wednesday morning, that calculation started to look a lot more expensive.

Conspiracy to impede a federal officer carries up to six years in federal prison.

The two VC Defensa members already charged in October – Isai Carrillo and Virginia Reyes – are still facing trial.

Now HSI has Martinez's truck, his van, his devices, and whatever else agents pulled from that Ventura County house before sunrise.

Every ICE-stalker in California running a rapid response network is watching this case.

The man who promised the world he would never stop following ICE now has federal agents following him.

Sources:

• Benjamin Brown, "Feds descend on California home of prominent anti-ICE agitator in dramatic early morning raid," California Post, May 13, 2026.
• DHS Statement on Oxnard ICE Operation, Department of Homeland Security, October 2025.
• "Federal officials charge Ventura County activists with obstructing ICE," Spectrum News 1, October 30, 2025.
• "Video shows federal agent ramming immigration activist's truck in Ventura County," CBS Los Angeles, October 18, 2025.