Fresno County Officials Condemn Attacks on ICE, Urge Support for Law<\/a><\/p>\nA Dangerous Denial of Reality<\/p>\n
At Friday\u2019s news conference, speakers directly contested that framing. Sukaina Hussain, deputy director of strategic initiatives at the California Immigrant Policy Center, said the supervisors\u2019 remarks \u201cblatantly disregard the real-world fear, trauma, and loss that immigrant families are experiencing every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese supervisors have demonstrated a profound disconnect from the communities that they were elected to serve. Immigrant families here in the Central Valley are the lifeline of our key industries, including agriculture, health care, and hospitality,\u201d said Hussain.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo claim that ICE is not causing harm is a dangerous denial of a well-documented reality,\u201d Hussain said. \u201cLives are at stake, and lives have been lost at the hands of ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768606327_978_From-left-to-right-Clovis-Council-Member-Drew-Bessinger-Fresno-County-Supervisor-Buddy-Mendes-Fresno.jpeg\")
Left to right: Clovis Council Member Drew Bessinger, Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes, Fresno County Supervisors Board Chair Garry Bredefeld, Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig, and Clovis Councilmember Diane Pierce publicly support the ICE crackdown on immigrants at a Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, news conference. (GV Wire\/Jahz Tello)
\nData Undercuts \u2018Criminal\u2019 Narrative<\/p>\n
Hussain pointed to recent national incidents and broader trends in detention. Independent national tracking of ICE custody suggests that a large majority of people held in immigration detention have no criminal conviction.<\/p>\n
A ProPublica investigation published in October reported it identified more than 170 cases in which U.S. citizens were detained during raids and protests in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As of Nov. 30, 2025, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse\u00a0 a research group at Syracuse University that compiles immigration enforcement data, reported 65,735 people in ICE detention of whom 48,377 (73.6%) had no criminal conviction. That leaves 17,358 (26.4%) with a criminal conviction, though TRAC notes many convictions are minor, including traffic offenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Advocates also pointed to cases where immigration agents detained people who were, in fact, U.S. citizens. The federal government does not publish a comprehensive tally of citizens detained by immigration agents, but a ProPublica investigation published in October reported it identified more than 170 cases in which U.S. citizens were detained during raids and protests in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese indiscriminate and hateful immigration raids not only jeopardize our economy, they also fragment our community,\u201d Hussain said. \u201cThis is not about public safety. This is an attack on our Constitution and on our due process rights. It affects all of us, immigrants and citizens alike.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Our Community Is Not a Campaign Prop\u2019<\/p>\n
Brenda Ordaz Garcia of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights sharpened the political critique, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. ahead of the holiday weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is deeply troubling to hear Fresno County supervisor publicly call for support for ICE,\u201d she said, describing the agency\u2019s actions as tearing families apart and traumatizing communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCalling for more ICE presence does not make our neighborhood safer,\u201d Ordez added. \u201cIt makes parents afraid to take their children to school. It makes workers afraid to report wage theft. It makes victims of domestic violence afraid to call for help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing and Exercising Constitutional Rights<\/p>\n
Mario Gonzalez, executive director of the Education and Leadership Foundation, urged residents to learn and exercise constitutional rights, including recording encounters with law enforcement in public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Constitution protects us all. It doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019ve been here a day, we\u2019ve been here our whole life, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gonzalez argued that widespread video cellphone documentation has changed what communities can prove about enforcement tactics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is because of our community members who are recording on a regular basis that we know this is occurring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Speakers repeatedly called on the board to acknowledge the harm advocates say ICE enforcement has caused, commit to public transparency and oversight, and protect civil rights regardless of immigration status. Medina told the crowd that community groups have built \u201cknow your rights\u201d workshops and rapid response systems, work she said distracts from other community needs. The coalition urged residents to contact their supervisors and demand dialogue.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community deserves leadership rooted in compassion,\u201d Hussain said, \u201cnot leaders who use their platforms to praise a rogue agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
They Forget Who Voted for Them<\/p>\n
Firebaugh City Councilmember Felipe Gonzalez, speaking in English and Spanish, said the supervisors\u2019 comments reflected a failure of representation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is interesting how our supervisors forget who voted for them,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThey forget that they are here for the greater good of the people. They forget that our people are important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzalez said county leaders were serving only a narrow segment of residents while ignoring the broader community. \u201cWe have all been betrayed,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not angry \u2014 I am disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emphasizing unity, Gonzalez added, \u201cWe are all from this community. Nobody breathes different air or drinks different water. We are all the same. We are all immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Community advocates gathered Friday outside the Fresno County Board of Supervisors building downtown to denounce recent comments by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[93,112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-136904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}