Ventura County immigration advocates plan to protest in front of Oxnard Police headquarters the night of Aug. 22 after federal agents allegedly arrested a woman at a bus stop in front of the station the day before.
The 46-year-old woman, who Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites said in an email to city leaders is on parole for arson, was leaving the station Aug. 21 after meeting with an Oxnard Police detective to comply with state requirements that arson offenders register with local police.
Blurry video of the incident surfaced on social media on Aug. 21, showing a group of individuals in tactical gear surrounding a pink-shirted figure at a bus stop on C Street, then escorting her into an SUV in the police station’s public parking lot.
Leo Martinez, an organizer with VC Defensa, said the activist network has been in contact with a friend of the woman and is trying to track her down in federal detention records.
Benites told city and community leaders in a pair of emails that police dug into the incident and found the woman was the same one who had come into the station at 11:15 a.m. for an arson registration check-in. The station’s Live Scan electronic fingerprinting system was down, Benites wrote, so the woman waited in the station lobby until leaving of her own accord shortly before her arrest just before 12:30 p.m.
Police never detained the woman, Benites said by phone. Officers were not involved in the arrest and had no knowledge of the presence of federal agents until the incident occurred. The chief said the department does not ask questions about immigration status and does not know the woman’s status.
Benites said Oxnard police have asked federal officials not to use the department’s public parking lot after two incidents where they pulled into the lot earlier this year. State law prohibits local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with most federal immigration enforcement activities.
“(This kind of incident) puts us in a really bad spot,” Benites said. “When this happens it lends to the average person watching this to question our involvement.”
Relationships between local law enforcement agencies and some immigration advocates have been tense since early this year, when the Trump administration first appeared to begin escalating immigration operations across the county, particularly in communities with large populations of Latinos.
Martinez said he has been wary of the Oxnard Police Department’s version of events since the 2012 fatal shooting of a 21-year-old bystander Alfonso Limon Jr.
Benites said the last several months of federal maneuvers have — in spite of department policies against aiding federal immigration agents — put Oxnard police in a bind.
“It has absolutely horrific optics. It’s terrible for police-community relations,” he said.
VC Defensa, along with the county’s chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, will host the protest in front of Oxnard Police headquarters starting at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22. The groups have led a string of protests in downtown Oxnard this year.
Isaiah Murtaugh covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or on Signal at 951-966-0914.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oxnard protest prompted after immigration arrest in front of police HQ
Reporting by Isaiah Murtaugh, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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