The Fresno City Council voted to set aside $1 million to help cover the cost of legal defense services for the city’s immigrant residents.
Councilmember Miguel Arias brought the resolution forward at Thursday’s council meeting in response to an ongoing surge of ICE arrests that has swept the region since early October.
He described the allocation as an important first step towards protecting the city’s residents, protecting due process and standing up against President Donald Trump’s administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, he said in a statement following the meeting.
“Today’s action sends a clear message: Fresno will not turn its back on immigrant families facing fear, intimidation, or potential violations of their constitutional rights,” he said. “We have fought to protect our city’s resources. Now, we are committing resources to protect our residents.”
The council approved the resolution 5-1, directing the city manager to prioritize finding available money through the mid-year budget process, which happens from November to January. The money would likely come from budget savings accrued this year from vacant city positions, Arias said.
The fund will be administered by the city attorney’s office, and the legal services will be provided through qualified outside legal service providers, according to the resolution.
The city set aside $200,000 for the same program in 2022, spearheaded by then-Councilmember Luis Chavez, who is now a Fresno County supervisor. It succeeded in helping some immigrants avoid deportation, The Fresno Bee previously reported.
Just two people spoke out against the proposal during public comment, primarily arguing that an allocation of this kind is not the city’s role and fiscally irresponsible.
Over a dozen residents urged support, including Jesus Martinez, the executive director of the Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative. He described the need for legal aid for immigrants in Fresno as urgent.
“We have in the Central Valley and the City of Fresno immigrant populations that have been here for 10, 15, 20, 30 years,” he said. “They contribute to the economy, they contribute to our culture, they contribute to our society, but what does not exist in adequate (measure) are protections to defend their rights.”
“We as a city need to respond to the needs of immigrants and consider them full residents with access to full rights,” Martinez said.
Arias compares it to other emergency funds the city provides to different groups of residents, such as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alfred Aldrete, with Fresno Resistance, applauded Arias for bringing the resolution forward, but encouraged the council to do more to help the immigrant community.
“We should be doing our best to make sure that all residents of Fresno and the Central Valley are protected,” Aldrete said. “This is a great step, but like many other people before me said, this is not enough.”
State providing $3M to Valley orgs for immigrant aid
During the council meeting, dozens rallied outside of City Hall to protest ICE’s presence in Fresno and demand city officials take action to help immigrants.
Protesters rally outside Fresno City Hall on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, to call on local elected officials to do more to help immigrants amid an ongoing federal enforcement surge in the Central Valley. ERIK GALICIA egalicia@fresnobee.com
Speaking at the rally, California Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat whose District 27 covers Fresno, Madera and Merced counties, said she has secured $3 million in state money for various community-based organizations providing aid to immigrants in her district. She’s currently running for state Senate District 14.
Many of those nonprofit aid groups are stretched thin because of the increase in immigration detentions, Soria told The Bee. She added that they need attorneys to file habeas corpus petitions, which are legal procedures that challenge unlawful detentions.
“We don’t have as many attorneys that we need to be able to provide the legal resources,” she said. “We’re hoping that those resources will help build the capacity.”
The state lawmaker said she tried to establish an immigration legal defense fund in Fresno in 2017, when she was a city councilmember. Though her proposal failed at the time, Soria said she is “proud that this council saw the light.”
“These families live here, they’re residents, they’re paying taxes,” she said of the immigrant community. “It’s about time local (elected representatives) step up.”
Protesters rally outside Fresno City Hall on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, to call on local elected officials to do more to help immigrants amid an ongoing federal enforcement surge in the Central Valley. ERIK GALICIA egalicia@fresnobee.com
This story was originally published October 22, 2026 at 3:41 PM.
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Erik is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, where he helped launch an effort to better meet the news needs of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Before that, he served as editor-in-chief of his community college student newspaper, Riverside City College Viewpoints, where he covered the impacts of the Salton Sea’s decline on its adjacent farm worker communities in the Southern California desert.