Masked ICE Agents Take Ojai Man, Witness Says

It's happening here.

Readers — I wanted to share this story with you as soon as possible:

Ojai Valley resident Allison Stillman was walking her dog along Maricopa Highway yesterday morning (Wednesday, July 9th) toward Nordhoff High School. It was approximately 7 a.m. when she saw a familiar middle-aged Latino man carrying a jug of water — they passed each other and shared a greeting.

Then, she heard two cars pull up behind her. “I turned around and I'd say maybe it was like 45 seconds after we passed each other,” Stillman said.

“By the time I turned around and saw it, [two men] were pushing him into the car, and I ran up to the car to try and intervene.” She didn’t hear any words exchanged.

The masked man in Stillman’s video is wearing an “ICE” badge.

Footage from Stillman’s phone shows the rest of the encounter — she says she didn’t realize she’d been recording. “I was so, so upset that this is happening, this [is] unconstitutional. They obviously did not have time to check his ID,” she said.

Stillman has a point — let’s review the Constitution:

The Fourth Amendment protects people (not only U.S. citizens) against “unreasonable searches and seizures.”

The Fifth Amendment guarantees “due process of law” to all people in the United States.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to “a speedy and public trial” for those accused of a crime.

According to the Washington Post, ICE officers have broad powers to make arrests. However, they must have “probable cause” to believe a) that person is in the country illegally, and b) that they are likely to flee. Critically: race and ethnicity cannot be used as probable cause. (That’s racial profiling and it’s illegal.) Take a moment to review your own rights during an encounter with ICE.

Image via 805Undocufund.

Stillman immediately informed 805 Undocufund by texting (805) 870-8855. An alert went out to those signed up for text notifications within ten minutes, she said.

After posting on Facebook about what she witnessed, Stillman was able to connect with the man’s family. They’d been searching for him when he didn’t show up for work that day, Stillman said. “They’re terrified,” she said.

Since yesterday, Stillman has shared the flier below with every Latino community member she meets, and she’s encouraging everyone to save the hotline number (805-870-8855). Stillman believes that ICE officers are racially profiling Latino community members and encourages everyone to get involved with both 805Undocufund and VC Defensa, two local immigrant’s rights organizations.

Flier via 805Undocufund

The evening prior to the July 9th ICE operation in Ojai, the Ojai City Council unanimously approved the Ojai Care Policy, which prohibits local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement activities, in line with a 2017 state law. The City of Ventura recently passed a similar resolution.

Ojai Police Chief Steve Jenkins has not responded to a request for comment. At present, Ojai Police won’t even confirm if ICE was present in the community July 9th.

I want to remind readers that ICE was created as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

As always, thanks for being here. Let’s take care of each other.