ICE Sweep Through Central Valley Leaves Fresno Families Separated, Workers Afraid to Leave Home

A wave of federal immigration enforcement operations that began the first week of October has left Fresno and Central Valley families scrambling to locate detained relatives, disrupted agricultural work across the region, and sparked confrontations between local officials and federal agents.

Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said school attendance dropped noticeably and construction work came to a halt as fear spread through the community. “We’re seeing across-the-board reduction of school attendance, substantial reduction in employees showing up to farm operations, packing sheds and in the fields,” Arias said. “Construction has essentially come to a halt. We’re seeing very few people out in the streets.”

In Kerman, Mayor Maria Pacheco confronted ICE agents on camera as they detained people on October 10. “You’re not welcome in my city,” she told an agent in a video posted on Facebook. “You’ve taken enough people yesterday. We don’t want you here.”

The following day, a 72-year-old Fresno resident shot and wounded an ICE agent who police said had fallen asleep on the resident’s daughter’s front lawn, appeared “intoxicated and agitated,” and allegedly assaulted the resident. Prosecutors have charged the agent with assault, elder abuse, and other crimes.

A Fresno farmworker who asked not to be named told The Los Angeles Times that ICE officers pulled him over on his way to work October 6. He said the officers didn’t know his name and let him go when he declined to answer questions about where he was born.

Prudencio Rivera, 31, was driving home from a night shift at a poultry farm when a truck with Texas plates followed him and pulled him over in Kerman, he said. Rivera began livestreaming on Facebook. The video showed an officer asserting that Rivera’s work permit didn’t give him permission to live in the U.S., then warning him to look away because they were going to break the back window. Rivera’s video captured the sound of glass shattering.

Rivera told The Times that he entered the U.S. in 2023 through an asylum process, has a work permit, and checks in with ICE once a month. Agents detained him and took him to the ICE office in Fresno, later releasing him after checking his documents and his record, he said.

In the city of Mendota, Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff of California, along with U.S. Rep. Adam Gray (D-Merced), wrote a letter demanding answers from ICE about the operation’s purpose and scope, as well as the number of those detained. “Mendota is a hardworking agricultural community, and families should not have to fear going to work or taking their kids to school,” the lawmakers wrote. “Federal immigration laws must be enforced, but how that happens matters. We need answers about what’s taking place, who is being targeted and whether people’s rights are being protected.”

In Fresno, the children of Noelia Bautista and Cipriano Lopez launched a GoFundMe page after their parents were detained. They contend their parents were racially profiled. An unidentified Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that ICE arrested the couple and said they had “illegally entered the U.S. at unknown times and places.” The spokesperson called allegations of racial profiling “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE,” adding that “what makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.”

Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers, condemned what she described as a “brutal ICE surge.” “Warrantless stops and roving patrols by masked federal agents across California, especially the Central Valley have been terrorizing farm workers,” she wrote. “These are not criminals. These are hard-working, long term members of our communities being unlawfully targeted simply for looking Latino and working class.”

A Los Angeles federal judge has ordered immigration agents to stop making civil arrests without a warrant unless they first determine that a person is likely to escape before one can be obtained.

In a statement, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the increased reports of federal immigration agents across the state were the result of President Trump using “fear and panic as a weapon — putting families at risk, undermining our economy, and terrorizing communities.”

An unidentified Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed response to The Times that “for operational security and the safety of our officers, ICE will not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations.”

The Breakdown

• ICE operations that began the first week of October spread across the Central Valley, including Fresno, Kerman, and Mendota, with reported enforcement activity also in the Coachella Valley and Ventura County.
• Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said school attendance dropped, agricultural work was disrupted, and construction came to a halt as fear spread through the community.
• A 72-year-old Fresno resident shot and wounded an ICE agent who prosecutors say assaulted the resident; the agent has been charged with assault, elder abuse, and other crimes.
• A Los Angeles federal judge has ordered immigration agents to stop making civil arrests without a warrant unless they first determine a person is likely to escape before one can be obtained.
• Democratic U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, along with U.S. Rep. Adam Gray, demanded answers from ICE about the operation’s purpose, scope, and the number of people detained.

What This Means for You

Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias reported that school attendance dropped, employees stopped showing up to farm operations and packing sheds, and construction came to a halt as fear spread through the community.

What You Can Do

U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, along with U.S. Rep. Adam Gray, have demanded answers from ICE about the operation’s purpose and scope. You can contact their offices to ask what response they receive and what action they plan to take.

A Los Angeles federal judge has already ordered immigration agents to stop making civil arrests without a warrant unless they first determine a person is likely to escape. If you or someone you know has been stopped or detained, organizations like the Valley Watch Network track ICE arrests and help families of those detained.

What to Watch

The material quotes an unidentified Department of Homeland Security spokesperson and an unidentified Homeland Security spokesperson making the federal government’s case — but gives no name, no title, no credential, and no way to ask either spokesperson a follow-up question.

An agency that will not put a name to its own defense of its own operation is asking you to take its word for something it will not stand behind on the record.

What evidence would settle this: the names and titles of the people speaking for DHS, and their answers to the questions Padilla, Schiff, and Gray have already asked — the operation’s purpose, its scope, and the number of people detained.

The material documents two very different pictures of who was detained and how. On one side, an unidentified Homeland Security spokesperson says the targets are people “illegally in the U.S.,” not people targeted by race.

On the other side, the material documents Prudencio Rivera — a man who entered the U.S. through an asylum process in 2023, has a work permit, and checks in with ICE once a month — pulled over, told his work permit didn’t give him permission to live here, and detained anyway after agents broke his car window.

It also documents a farmworker pulled over by ICE officers who didn’t know his name and let him go when he declined to answer their questions. Those two accounts do not match the agency’s description of targeted enforcement.

Which one is the pattern, and which is the exception? The answer is in the records the agency will not release: the number of people detained, the legal status of each person detained, and the basis for each stop.

Rhetorical question for the reader: if an agency will not tell you how many people it detained, who they were, or why it stopped them — and will not put a name to the person defending that secrecy — what reason do you have to believe its reassurances?

Related Coverage

• Kerman Mayor Maria Pacheco faces stalking complaint after confronting Fresno hairstylist she mistook for ICE agent
• Two Visions for District 1: City Councilmember and Kerman Mayor Lay Out Plans for County Supervisor Seat
• ICE Sweep Through Fresno Leaves Families Without Providers, Children Asking Where Parents Are