Moment married father-of-four locks himself inside his car and refuses to step out after ICE officers tried to detain him on a deportation order before they abandoned the operation
- Octavio Martínez locked himself inside his car as ICE agents tried to detain him outside his home in Santa Ana, California
- The undocumented immigrant from Mexico took photographs of documents dated August 2019 and November 2017 before sending them to his lawyer
- Martínez said his lawyer responded and told him the documents were not valid
- The standoff last three hours before the ICE agents dropped the operation
- Martínez acknowledged that he has a pending immigration case
A Mexican man with a pending immigration case locked himself inside his car for three hours and refused to respond to a warrant being issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Octavio Martínez was set to head off to work Tuesday when ICE agents intercepted him in the middle of a street in Santa Ana, California.
The married father-of-four then used his cellphone to record the confrontation while the agents threatened to use a Taser on him.
‘I looked at my doors and raised the windows, and they began to aggressively hit my glass and my windows when they saw that,’ Martínez told Univision 34.
An ICE agent instructed Martínez to ‘shut off the car’ while he pointed a flashlight at him.
Octavio Martínez was on his way to work when ICE agents cornered him outside his home in Santa Ana, California, in an attempt to issue a warrant for his deportation Tuesday. He spent three hours inside the car before the agents abandoned the operation
Octavio Martínez said he rolled up his window and locked all of the doors as an ICE agent (pictured) stood outside his car for almost three hours Tuesday. He said the agents showed him two documents, which his lawyer told him were not valid during a text message exchange
Martínez contacted his lawyer and forward him two notices that were presented by the ICE agents, who he alleged initially identified themselves as members of the FBI before his wife and children showed up at the scene crying.
One of the legal notices presented by the ICE agent was a Department of Homeland Security document dated August 14, 2019, which indicated there was a cause for his removal but did not provide a reason, according to KABC.
The second document was dated November 2017 and included an immigration judge’s ruling to have Martínez deported to Mexico.
He told Telemundo 62 that ICE agents said that they would remain on-site all day if they needed to until he turned himself in.
An ICE agent (left) paces around outside the home of Octavio Martínez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, who avoided being arrested by the federal immigration officers
ICE agents stand outside a Mexican immigrant’s vehicle while they tried to arrest him
‘My lawyer then returned the message and told me that it was not a valid [deportation] order, and that it was a trick,’ Martínez said.
The standoff lasted about three hours until the federal agents left.
Martínez admitted having an open immigration judgment but did not specify what it was about.
‘If my lawyer tells me your options are over, I will surrender. I have no problem with that. I am an honest man,’ he said.
KABC reported that Martínez’s alleged asylum petition was denied.
ICE agents detained him in 2015 during a home visit. He was reportedly mistaken for another person the federal immigration agents were seeking to arrest.
Martínez was held for three months until he was released.