{"id":391126,"date":"2026-07-08T21:29:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391126\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:29:31","slug":"ice-arrests-and-deportations-from-central-valley-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/391126\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE arrests and deportations from Central Valley prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.<\/p>\n

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 135 people from Avenal State Prison in Kings County since Jan. 1, 2025, according to The Bee\u2019s analysis of Deportation Data Project data.<\/p>\n

Fresno Bee file<\/p>\n

THE FRESNO BEE<\/p>\n

ICE has arrested at least 422 individuals from Central Valley prisons and jails through administrative transfers since President Donald Trump took office.<\/p>\n

One facility \u2014 Avenal State Prison in Kings County \u2014 accounted for 133 of the ICE arrests, or 32% \u2014 the most at any San Joaquin Valley-based penitentiary.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee analyzed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest data obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Deportation Data Project, a UC Berkeley Law School initiative. This data reflects when ICE arrests someone, whether that arrest results in a decision to detain the person.<\/p>\n

While California\u2019s sanctuary state laws restrict cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement agencies, state prisons can cooperate with ICE on a limited basis.<\/a><\/p>\n

The ICE arrest data, available through March 10, shows that these individuals were apprehended at about 24 different city police departments, county jails, and state or federal prisons and civil detention centers across Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced and Tulare Counties.<\/p>\n

More than half, or 224, were classified as \u201ccustodial arrests\u201d that typically indicate an arrest at or following a transfer from a state or local jail or prison, including federal prisons. Another 180, or 43%, were arrested under the \u201cCriminal Alien Program,\u201d a program in which ICE places detainers \u2014 or requests for 48-hour holds \u2014 on individuals currently in federal, state or local law enforcement agency custody who ICE believes are eligible for removal or deportation from the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"U.S. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 135 people from Avenal State Prison in Kings County since Jan. 1, 2025, according to The Bee\u2019s analysis of Deportation Data Project data. Fresno Bee file THE FRESNO BEE <\/p>\n

Of these ICE arrests from Valley prisons and jails, 94% had criminal convictions, while the rest had pending criminal charges or immigration-related offenses. Eighty-five percent were considered to be the highest \u201cLevel 1\u201d ICE Threat Level, typically reserved for those who had committed aggravated felonies or two or more crimes or felonies, each punishable by more than one year, according to ICE.<\/a><\/p>\n

A majority, or 307, of these incarcerated immigrants were from Mexico, followed by Guatemala (25), El Salvador (23), Honduras (18) and India (5).<\/p>\n

These prison and jail arrests only account for about 16% of the total 2,586 ICE arrests in the six-county region over the same period. A majority of the arrests did not have specific locations on where an individual was arrested, but indicate they were arrested in the general Bakersfield or Fresno areas.<\/p>\n

According to the Deportation Data Project, \u201cstreet arrests,\u201d and arrests of individuals with no criminal history, have grown exponentially under the second Trump administration<\/a>. As of February, 74% of the people held in ICE detention centers throughout the state had no criminal history, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of public data.<\/a><\/p>\n

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says it will not hold an individual past their scheduled release date if ICE declines to pick up or a release occurs as required by law. Since 2015, ICE has picked up more than 18,000 people from CDCR facilities.<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, CDCR Spokesperson Terri Hardy reiterated the department\u2019s previous public statement about its interactions with ICE,<\/a> saying the department \u201cworks with a variety of external law enforcement and government agencies to ensure public safety and meet all legal requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to every scheduled release to parole, CDCR reviews each individual\u2019s case for state and federal holds, warrants, and detainers, including any ICE detainers, Hardy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCDCR has procedures in place to protect the rights of individuals who receive ICE requests. These include providing a consent form that informs individuals of their right to decline an ICE interview or to have an attorney present, and issuing a \u2018Notice of Detainer\u2019 to notify individuals of any ICE detainer placed on them,\u201d Hardy said.<\/p>\n

\"The The federal prison in Mendota, California opened in 2012. ERIC PAUL ZAMORA ezamora@fresnobee.com ICE Arrests at Central Valley jails, prisons<\/p>\n

The ICE data obtained by Deportation Data Project includes some details on arrest locations, referred to as \u201capprehension site landmark.\u201d This can either refer to the arrest location or a place near the arrest and is thought to be the most geographically-specific information on ICE arrests.<\/a><\/p>\n

The second-highest number of prison arrests took place at Federal Correctional Institution, Mendota, a medium-security federal prison in west Fresno County.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 48 people were arrested from Corcoran State Prison in Kings County and 28 from Valley State Prison in Madera County.<\/p>\n

Of the individuals arrested from prisons or jails, a majority have already been removed, deported or voluntarily returned to their countries of origin.<\/p>\n

\"Inmates Inmates walk across the grounds of Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, Calif., on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. ANDREW KUHN MERCED SUN-STAR <\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 11:41 AM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Melissa Montalvo<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Melissa Montalvo is The Fresno Bee\u2019s accountability reporter. Prior to this role, she covered Latino communities for The Fresno Bee as the part of the Central Valley News Collaborative. She also reported on labor, economy and poverty through newsroom partnerships between The Fresno Bee, Fresnoland and CalMatters as a Report for America Corps member.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 135 people from Avenal State Prison in Kings County since Jan.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-391126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391126","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=391126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}