Fear does not always arrive with flashing lights and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Sometimes, it comes with a local official and a microphone.
In Fresno, undocumented communities have learned that panic can spread faster than actual facts, especially when it comes from elected officials. Over the past year, Councilmember Miguel Arias has made reports of alleged ICE activity with no ounce of proof or verification, leaving undocumented residents afraid and confused.
This raises a difficult but necessary question: Is Arias more concerned with protecting the people he represents, or with gaining praise and attention even when his allegations are unsupported by evidence?
Last June, Arias made a heartstopping claim during a Fresno City Council meeting, alleging that ICE was planning to conduct a “massive immigration raid” at the Cherry Auction flea market. He cited an unnamed source and offered no evidence to the press. No raid ever happened, but vendors lost income as fear kept customers away.
Weeks later, local vendors confronted Arias at a City Hall meeting, some calling for his resignation. Susana Osana, a vendor who attended the meeting, told ABC30 that the claims appeared self-serving and reckless, arguing that Arias acted as if he were immune from the consequences of spreading unverified information.
But old habits seem hard to die for the District 3 councilmember. At the Jan. 15 City Council meeting, Arias again warned of impending ICE raids in Bakersfield and Fresno, citing a social media post that has since been deleted.
The claim quickly reopened the fear across the undocumented community, but Fresnoland later reported on Friday that Arias was backing down from the allegation. He stated a source told him that officials changed their plans and will not conduct large-scale raids in Bakersfield and Fresno at this time. Again, refusing to identify his source or provide clarification.
When claims of ICE raids are shared without proof and later brushed away, the impact doesn’t disappear. Fear lingers, trust disappears and undocumented residents are left to navigate panic without clarity from the very officials meant to represent them.
We can’t deny the recent ICE arrest in Clovis, but warning communities based on speculation, without verification, accountability or follow-through does not protect people. It destabilizes them.
Elected officials have a responsibility to inform without inflaming, to warn without guessing, and to understand that words spoken from a seat of power carry real consequences.
Arias is not alone. Supervisor Garry Bredefeld represents the opposite extreme.
At a recent press conference, Bredefeld called on elected leaders nationwide to publicly support ICE, claiming ICE agents were “under attack”. Yet, Bredefeld ignores the growing evidence showing that ICE operations themselves have raised serious civil rights violations.
Bredefeld openly encouraged ICE operations despite widespread reports from civil rights groups documenting wrongful detentions, alleged abuses and cases involving U.S. citizens being racially profiled. Public support for these operations sends a chilling message: fear and collateral damage are acceptable.
In a political climate where rhetoric can matter as much as policy, is Bredefeld truly trying to support public safety, or is he just trying to score points with a political base that probably doesn’t even know he exists?
For an elected official who has campaigned to “defend the Constitution,” this spectacle looks less like responsible leadership and more like an attempt to gain favor with conservative supporters and national audiences.
Taken together, Arias and Bredefeld expose a deeper problem: fear has become a political tool. One spreads unverified claims and retreats without accountability. The other praises immigration enforcement despite mounting civil rights concerns.
Whether driven by ambition or ideology, the result is the same. Leadership feels more like a lifetime soap opera, and communities are left to deal with the damage.
Fresno doesn’t need clout-chasing officials.
It needs leaders who understand that words have consequences and reckless rhetoric puts lives at risk.