What’s at stake?
Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias’ claims follow two weeks of local protests over immigration enforcement and recent statements by some Fresno County supervisors supporting ICE.
During Thursday’s Fresno City Council meeting, Councilmember Miguel Arias claimed that a social media post by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday indicated larger raids were coming to Bakersfield and Fresno. Arias’ claim has since circulated widely on social media.
But in an interview with Fresnoland on Friday morning, Arias said a source told him that officials changed their plans and will not conduct large-scale raids in Bakersfield and Fresno at this time. Fresnoland could not independently verify that federal immigration enforcement agencies ever posted on social media about plans to conduct mass operations in the Central Valley, and Arias did not respond to a request to elaborate on the referenced social media post.
Representatives for ICE and U.S. Border Patrol did not respond to a request for comment as of Friday afternoon.
In an emailed statement to Fresnoland, Mayor Jerry Dyer said that he is “not aware of any organized or planned operations that will be conducted in Fresno by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It is generally not their practice to notify city officials, to include law enforcement of upcoming operations.”
Arias also referenced in his comments Thursday the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week. He said that he wanted to share the post to prepare community members for the possibility of large-scale raids and, for those who are protesting, to urge them to remain peaceful.
Never miss the top stories in Fresno — sign up for our free, daily newsletter.
“The news we’re seeing across the country is that immigration enforcement has taken a whole new level of aggression by ICE,” Arias said during the meeting.
In Fresno, protests drew hundreds of people on Jan. 8 at immigration enforcement offices downtown and on Jan. 11 at River Park. At the Jan. 8 protest, the Fresno Police Department’s traffic division stopped cars to allow protesters safe passage across downtown. There was no reported police presence at the Jan. 11 protest.
Protests over the killing of Good also prompted some local conservative leaders to speak out in support of ICE at a news conference Tuesday, where Fresno County supervisors and others called on elected officials nationwide to back the agency amid reports of increased attacks against it.
In response to county leaders’ move, a handful of immigrant rights’ organizations held a press conference Friday outside the Hall of Records calling on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to acknowledge the documented harms caused by ICE’s escalation in enforcement and improve transparency and oversight.
It’s not Arias’ first claim warning Fresno residents about potential federal immigration raids that hasn’t materialized. Last June, Arias cited an undisclosed source who he said previously told him that ICE agents were planning a “massive immigration raid” at the Cherry Auction. Arias did not provide evidence supporting that earlier claim.
The purported raids at the Cherry Auction never arrived, but Fresnoland confirmed last June that attendance at the Cherry Auction did decline that weekend.
During the press conference, Lourdes Medina, advocacy and communications associate with SIREN, responded to Arias’ claim, saying, “They [ICE] are always here.”
Lourdes Medina, advocacy and communications associate with SIREN, speaking at the press conference on Friday outside the Hall of Records. Gisselle Medina | Fresnoland
Medina said that California is home to important social justice movements and that, because of that, the state and its communities are seen as targets in the same way Minnesota and Illinois have been targeted by what he described as ICE’s aggressive enforcement and federal overreach.
In an interview with Fresnoland, Medina said that regardless of whether Arias’ claim is accurate, it is important for a city council member to share information responsibly with the public to help prevent potential harm.
“So whatever information we get, we will work on it, because at the end of the day, it means to save a life, to protect our children, to make sure our Central Valley is not part of the game of pain and hurt and cruelty,” Medina said.
Fresnoland editor Danielle Bergstrom contributed to this story.
Support our hyperlocal reporting with a donation today.
Every week we bring you deeply reported stories about the essential issues facing our region. Please help us continue our work by becoming a monthly member.
Related