A report of ICE agents seen June 2 in the parking lot of the vote center at Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District Activity Center in Simi Valley raised alarms among Ventura County elections officials.
Ken Hurst, a vote center lead, said the incident occurred at 8:15 a.m. with “a couple vehicles worth” of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Hurst said they were on site for about 30 minutes.
It’s not legal for the government to have armed officials near a polling site, he said. Someone inside the vote center called the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District rangers to respond, Hurst said.
The park rangers arrived to “deal with it,” and the ICE agents left the property, the vote center lead said. The ICE agents did not enter the voting area, Hurst said.
“One of them was outside at their vehicle. The other, I don’t think left their vehicle, but I was inside most of the time because we had a crush of people then,” he said.
Hurst said when they knew the park rangers were getting involved, there was not much for them to do. The park rangers did not speak with him or others inside the center, he said.
“It would be inappropriate for them to do so unless we invited them in,” he said.
Officials with Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, which oversees the park rangers, did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails.
Hurst said he saw one agent who was “masked and vested,” but he wasn’t sure how people inside the polling station were alerted about ICE.
“It was kind of a commotion,” he said. He did not know if ICE agents had taken anyone.
Hurst said the incident “stood out the most” during an otherwise busy day of voting.
County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Michelle Ascencion said on June 2 that she was aware of the incident but did not have a comment.
An Instagram post from 805repuestarapida shows a picture with a ranger vehicle and two park rangers speaking to someone in the parking lot at 4201 Guardian St. in Simi Valley. The social media page is part of immigrant advocacy group 805Undocufunds’ rapid-response network.
Text in Spanish on one image says that the park rangers were seen telling ICE that they could not be at voting centers.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in response to an email about the Simi Valley encounter that, “For operational security reasons, we are not going to confirm the locations of our officers.”
Sgt. Frank Panza, of the Simi Valley Police Department, said his agency was not notified June 2 that ICE was present in the city.
Staff writer Makena Huey contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: ICE presence outside Simi Valley vote center raises alarms
Reporting by Wes Woods II, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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