On a quiet Thursday morning in Santa Maria, what began as a quick trip to the store ended in handcuffs, tears, and unanswered questions.
A local father, Victor Martinez, who is undocumented, had stayed home from work to help care for his sick daughter, was taken into custody by immigration agents just blocks from his house in what his family and supporters are calling a clear case of mistaken identity.
The incident has raised legal questions about due process, identity verification, and the rights of individuals during immigration enforcement stops.
According to his wife, Martinez was driving with her and their two children, ages four and six, on Harding Avenue on Thursday morning when several unmarked vehicles surrounded their car. She says they had just left home to purchase cold medicine for their daughter, who was ill.
“We were at home, our daughter had a cough,” she said in Spanish. "When he crossed the traffic light and looked up, he saw all the cars coming behind him, and he turned onto Harding Street. Then, it seemed like he froze, like he didn’t know what to do, and he got a little nervous. So, I told him it was better to just stop, and he got out of the car. As soon as he stopped, about five or six cars surrounded us, they got in front and all around us, he couldn’t even park properly.”
She says she and Martinez had no idea who was stopping them at first. The vehicles were unmarked, and several individuals wearing tactical gear exited rapidly and blocked their path from the front and both sides.
“They told us to get out,” she said. “They didn’t explain anything.”
According to the wife, Martinez attempted to tell the officers that they had the wrong person and offered to provide identification through the window.
“He said that’s not me,” she recalled. “He told them right away they were making a mistake.”
However, she says the agents insisted he exit the vehicle and warned him that if he didn’t, something worse might happen, all while their young children sat in the back seat.
"He said, ‘Get out for your kids, so they don’t see, so they don’t see.’ So, I think that’s why he got out, because he didn’t want the kids to see, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. Even though he hadn’t done anything bad, he got out because he didn’t want his kids to see them roughing him up or anything.”
Martinez was handcuffed on the scene and taken into custody without further explanation, she says.
Later that day, she received a phone call from Martinez. He told her he had been transferred to a detention center in Ventura County and had been shown a photo of another man. He said ICE acknowledged to him that the stop had been a mistake — that he was not the person they were trying to find.
A neighbor who lives near where the incident occurred captured part of it on a surveillance camera. In the video, several unmarked vehicles can be seen converging on the car from multiple directions.
“They all came out like quickly from the cars," the neighbor said. "They surrounded their car and they put another car right in front of their car so they wouldn't leave."
The neighbor said it reminded her of a prior encounter she’d had with immigration officers years ago.
“It reminded me of a time that they pulled up here to my house and they were dressed the same exact way and then when they were leaving, they said they were ICE," they said.
Attorney Michael B. Clayton, who has practiced law in Santa Maria for decades and previously handled immigration cases, says the information provided raises several potential legal concerns. Clayton is not representing Victor Martinez.
“The U.S. Constitution protects everyone who is physically present on U.S. soil, regardless of immigration status,” Clayton said. “If they didn’t have a judicial warrant signed by a judge, then legally, they couldn’t require him to get out of the vehicle.”
Clayton said ICE agents typically operate with administrative warrants, which are not issued by a judge and therefore do not carry the same legal authority as a judicial warrant.
“An ICE administrative warrant doesn’t give them the right to force you out of a car or enter your home,” he said. “That requires a warrant reviewed and signed by a federal judge.”
He also addressed the wife’s claim that agents used implied threats to get her husband out of the car.
“So with that, that’s coercion, and coercion does not substitute for ‘oh no problem I’d be glad to help you, officer.’ [It] doesn’t substitute at all.”
Clayton believes Martinez may have been wrongfully detained based solely on physical resemblance to another individual.
“That’s not good enough for probable cause,” he added. “Based on resemblance, yeah, you need verification and when the gentleman is telling you that ‘I’m not that person, it’s somebody else,’ do you have to get out of the car? Only if they have a warrant.”
According to Clayton, the family may have legal options moving forward, including potential civil action. He also emphasized that detainees should be cautious about signing documents without legal guidance.
“ICE sometimes presents voluntary departure forms before the person even sees a judge,” he said. “People need to know they don’t have to sign anything until they’ve gone to court and spoken to an attorney.”
According to the wife, the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard, which represents Mexican nationals in Santa Barbara County, confirmed to the family that the man was not the person they were looking to arrest.
The wife says she received a call from consular officials informing her that ICE had misidentified her husband.
The consulate has since spoken with Martinez in detention and is advising him not to sign any documents, according to the family.
As of this writing, Martinez remains in custody at a facility in Ventura County. His wife says he’s been told he will be transferred to Los Angeles, where he will appear before an immigration judge.
The consulate has not issued a public statement or answered our call or email for comment.
Martinez’s wife says their family has lived in the United States for 24 years and that her husband has worked in agriculture, as a strawberry picker, in Santa Maria. He has no known criminal record, she says, and this is their first contact with immigration enforcement.
“We work hard, we don’t cause problems,” she said. “We just want to live peacefully.”
She says the couple’s two children have been deeply affected by their father’s absence, and says if he gets deported, they will leave the U.S. as well.
“If it turns out he has to go, if they remove him for whatever reason, then it’s better that we all go because the kids love him so much, and we’ve always been together, from the moment we met 24 years ago until now, we’ve never been apart. I think even if I could stay here, it wouldn’t be the same without him.”
She also explained that many students at her kids' school understand who ICE agents are and what it means if their parents come across them.
“They knew it was ICE, they’ve heard about them in school," she said. "They understand now what it means when they see those kinds of cars.”
In the days following the arrest, friends and supporters created a GoFundMe campaign to help cover legal fees.
The fundraiser is titled “Help Victor Reunite with His Family” and has been shared by immigrant advocacy groups and neighbors in the Santa Maria Valley. As of today, the page had raised over a thousand dollars towards its goal.
Following the incident, KSBY visited the ICE sub-office in Santa Maria. Staff referred inquiries to ICE Public Affairs Specialist Richard Beam, who has not responded to our request for comment via text and phone call.
