{"id":195339,"date":"2026-02-26T20:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195339\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T20:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:40:22","slug":"misinformation-leads-to-confusion-in-fresnos-immigrant-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195339\/","title":{"rendered":"Misinformation Leads to Confusion in Fresno’s Immigrant Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the absence of information about whether the landscape is changing, some locals have taken it upon themselves to be immigration vigilantes, flooding social media with photos and videos purporting to show ICE agents in the community.\u00a0And although a few of these videos likely did capture ICE agents, many were other local law enforcement operations. For instance, the Merced County Sheriff\u2019s Office in mid-January confirmed that\u00a0a set of videos claiming to shed light on ICE operations<\/a>\u00a0in fact captured a\u00a0massive law enforcement operation being carried out by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation<\/a> and a handful of other law enforcement agencies.\u00a0Misinformation in times like these can backfire, said Gregorio Matiaz, an immigration program manager with the non-profit Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Ind\u00edgena Oaxaque\u00f1o that provides services to the local indigenous Mexican community.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s causing more uncertainty and fear amongst the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Federal agents searched Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and the San Pedro home of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday morning, the Department of Justice confirmed.<\/p>\n

The reason for the searches is unknown. A DOJ spokesperson said the agency has a court-authorized warrant but declined to provide additional details.\u00a0 A home in Broward County was also searched<\/a> as part of an investigation related to Carvalho, the FBI\u2019s Miami office confirmed. Multiple media reports<\/a> have found that the house is linked to Debra Kerr, a former consultant for the tech start-up AllHere. That company secured a contract with LA Unified to develop an AI chatbot for the district. It ultimately failed to deliver.<\/p>\n

Within three months of its debut, AllHere, furloughed the bulk of its staff; its CEO was later charged with fraud<\/a>. The district defended the process it used to debut that chatbot, which cost $3 million.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education is scheduled to meet behind closed doors on Thursday to discuss the future of Superintendent Carvalho in the wake of the FBI raids.<\/p>\n

This story,\u00a0originally published by KVCR<\/a>, contains language that may be inappropriate for young or sensitive readers.<\/p>\n

Riverside County<\/a>\u00a0prosecutors charged a man claiming to be a federal immigration officer with assault after he pulled a gun on a 17-year-old last November.<\/p>\n

Gerardo Rodriguez, 46, was arrested after the incident by Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s deputies at his home near Temecula\u2019s wine country.<\/p>\n

The case is moving through the courts as national scrutiny grows over how difficult it is to hold federal agents accountable. Experts claim legal actions in the last decade have curtailed people\u2019s ability to sue, while the teenager\u2019s attorney remains optimistic about holding Rodriguez accountable.<\/p>\n

In-home surveillance video obtained by independent news outlet\u00a0L.A. Taco<\/a> shows Rodriguez walking in the middle of the block on Daybrook Terrace in Temecula, pointing his gun at an incoming pickup truck.\u00a0\u201cStop, stop, slow down,\u201d Rodriguez yells to the truck\u2019s driver on video. \u201cFreeze, police! Put the car in fucking park.\u201d\u00a0Deputies said Rodriguez wore a badge around his neck and identified himself as law enforcement. On video, Rodriguez is seen commanding the truck\u2019s driver to get out of the car and sit on the curb.<\/p>\n

The Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Department arrested Rodriguez at his home after investigators obtained a search warrant and collected evidence related to the incident.\u00a0Rodriguez was arraigned in December, according to records obtained by KVCR, where he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment and false imprisonment. Rodriguez pleaded not guilty, and his private attorney, Michael Scaffidi, did not return calls requesting comment.\u00a0U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the case is still under investigation. The agency would not confirm or deny that Rodriguez was employed by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both ICE and Border Protection. ICE officials have told multiple media outlets that Rodriguez was not employed by their agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the absence of information about whether the landscape is changing, some locals have taken it upon themselves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-195339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195339","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=195339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}