Central Coast father was detained by ICE. His family says they took the wrong man
Para leer este artículo en español, haga clic aquí.
A Santa Maria father was on his way to the store to get medicine for his family one Thursday morning when he saw sirens in his rear view mirror.
Victor Martinez Rodriguez, 38, entered the United States without documentation 24 years ago when he was a teenager. In the ensuing years, he worked in the United States, got married and started a family — but he never resolved his legal status.
Then, on June 19, he stayed home from his job as a strawberry picker to care for his sick daughter.
While driving his wife and two children, a group of unmarked federal immigration vehicles surrounded his car and ordered him into the street — asking him to leave the vehicle so his children wouldn’t have to see something worse happen to him, according to his wife. The Tribune isn’t naming her because she’s afraid of retaliation from ICE.
The ICE agents did not present a judicial warrant to Martinez, she said, but they did show him a photo of another man they were searching for. The agents seemed to think Martinez was the man in the photo, she said, adding that her husband has no criminal record.
Martinez’s wife and kids watched tearfully from the car as he was put into handcuffs and placed into the back of one of the unmarked vehicles at the scene.
Martinez is one of about 140 people who have been detained by ICE in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, according to the nonprofit organization 805 UndocuFund.
Now, Martinez is being held at an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas — the fourth facility he has been to during the two weeks after his arrest, his wife said.
His family is fighting to bring him home.
“I’m looking for help so I can talk to him so that he can be set free,” Martinez’s wife told The Tribune in Spanish, holding back tears.
ICE arrested the wrong man, family said
After Martinez pulled over on Harding Avenue, the unidentified vehicles surrounded his car and agents exited wearing face coverings, cargo pants, green vests and hats.
At first, Martinez and his wife didn’t know that the agents worked for ICE, she said.
“I was very scared, and I began to cry,” his wife said. “I was in the car when he got out, and I wanted to get out but they told me to stay.”
The agents approached the car but did not present a judicial warrant or badge to Martinez, she said.
When the agents asked him his name and citizenship status, he remained silent and stayed sitting in the driver’s seat, his wife said. From the passenger’s seat, she showed them an immigration red card — which outlines a person’s legal rights — but Martinez showed no form of identification to the agents, she said.
Then, the agents ordered him to exit the vehicle. They said if he didn’t step out of the car, his kids would have to see something worse happen to him, his wife said.
“I know that’s why he got out, because he wasn’t going to get out. But since he loves his kids, he didn’t want them to see something bad,” she said tearfully.
When Martinez exited his vehicle, the agents showed him a photo of another man that he tried to explain wasn’t him — but they put him in handcuffs anyway and transported him to the ICE processing facility in Santa Maria, his wife said.
Officers at the facility told Martinez he had been mistakenly arrested in place of the man in the photo, but he would remain in custody because he entered the country without documentation, his wife said.
Two hours after Martinez had been detained, he called his wife and told her all of the photos they showed him were of another man. At first, he thought they were going to let him go, but even though they picked up the wrong man, ICE kept Martinez in custody due to his undocumented status, she said.
ICE later confirmed the arrest to The Tribune.
“Rodriguez will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the U.S.,” an ICE spokesperson told The Tribune.
The Trump administration has claimed it’s focusing its immigration crackdown on undocumented criminals, but plenty of non-criminal immigrants — and in some cases even U.S. citizens — have been detained or deported in ICE operations since Trump has taken office.
While ICE’s priority is to target undocumented people with criminal records, any individual illegally present in the United States who is encountered during an immigration enforcement operation may be taken into custody and processed for removal as stated by law, the ICE spokesperson said.
During the past two weeks, Martinez was moved to four different ICE facilities in Santa Maria, Camarillo, Los Angeles and now El Paso, Texas, his wife said.
Now that Martinez is out of the state, it is harder for his family to get in contact with a lawyer willing to represent him in Texas, his wife said.
His nephew started a GoFundMe to cover Martinez’s legal expenses. As of Thursday, they had raised $4,136 of the $5,000 goal.
With Martinez away from home, his family waits every day to hear what is going to happen to him, his wife said.
Whenever the family returns to their original home — currently they’re living with other family members — the kids are reminded of their absent father, and they do not want to stay long.
“Every day they ask me, ‘When is my dad going to get out?’” his wife said.
Martinez was also the main contributor to the family income, and his wife does not work or know how to drive, she said.
Martinez told his wife that many of the detainees around him are people who had been taken from their place of work, she said.
Including himself, many in custody are refusing to sign any documents that would self-deport them, Martinez’s wife said.
A community in crisis
Trump’s escalation of immigration enforcement activity threw the Central Coast immigrant community into a crisis — as families scramble to reconnect with the at least 140 people detained by ICE in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since Jan. 20, according to the 805 UndocuFund.
The non-profit reported two other arrests in Santa Maria within the same week as Martinez’s. The organization’s 805 Immigrant Rapid Response Hotline reported that one person was “kidnapped” from his workplace on Stowell Road on June 24, and another was arrested the next day at La Princesa Market, a Mexican grocery store on Broadway.
On Thursday, another immigrant man was taken by ICE agents outside of the San Luis Obispo County courthouse following a misdemeanor court hearing.
This year, the nonprofit mobilized to respond to increased ICE activity on the Central Coast — which community organizer Darlene Villanueva called “political warfare” as ICE attempts to meet its quota of 3,000 arrests per day. Reuters reported in June that Trump directed ICE to meet the new quota.
People can call the hotline at 805-870-8855 to request help if stopped by ICE or to report ICE activity. The network will text those enrolled in their service about confirmed ICE sightings. Text “ALERT” to the hotline number to receive real-time updates.
Villanueva said the hotline has been overwhelmed with calls since Trump took office.
Callers reported arrests at places like Target, public parks, their neighborhoods and their workplaces. Earlier this month, ICE agents targeted farms across the Central Coast, arresting five people in Santa Maria and 35 in Oxnard in the largest workplace raid Villanueva has seen locally.
“America’s not the land of opportunity. It’s the land of being persecuted and hunted,” she said. “It’s really heartbreaking.”
People without citizenship only leave their homes when necessary, and families fear being separated from each other. During a video call with The Tribune, Villanueva paused to scan the streets for ICE — ready to spring into action if agents appeared.
“Many of my people live in fear and uncertainty,” she said. “We know there’s going to be a raid, but we don’t know when.”
805 UndocuFund formed the 805 Immigrant Coalition with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project and Buen Vecino.
Together, the organizations patrol the Central Coast for ICE, often driving the streets at 4 a.m. before farmworkers head to the fields. If a person without citizenship feels unsafe leaving their job site after work, a volunteer will find them and drive them home.
“We (the 805 Immigrant Coalition) have to be what the government is not in our community,” Villanueva said. “When there’s an emergency, you’d think they would call 911 — they call us. They call us. How sad is that, for them to call us.”
Meanwhile, volunteers pick up groceries and gas for people who are afraid to leave their homes. They’ll also take people’s laundry to the laundromat. 805 UndocuFund also distributes donations to people whose loved ones have been deported or those who feel unsafe going to work.
People can donate to 805 UndocuFund at 805undocufund.org/donate.
“We just want to keep our community safe. And I can’t even say ‘undocumented community’ — because we’re being racially profiled,” Villanueva said. “It’s just so sad. It’s like, I could be taken by ICE. I do not look white.”
Generations of immigrant families are being traumatized by the threat of deportation, she said.
“Even when this administration leaves, that dagger is still going to be there,” she said. “That pain, that hurt is still going to be there. We can’t forget about this.”
This story was originally published July 5, 2025 at 10:05 AM.
