FRESNO, Calif. – Days after federal immigration agents launched a mass raid in California, including in the Fresno metropolitan area, leaders are already revealing the effects the operation is having on the community.
At a press conference Friday, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said he was contacted by one of the owners of Fowler Packing Company south of the city to say a number of workers had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Others were refusing to show up to work out of fear of the same thing happening to them, Dyer was told.
Alma Beltran, the mayor of Parlier, a city with a roughly 98 percent Latino population, said she received numerous messages from residents afraid to leave their homes. She has learned one of the residents in her city who was in a nursing program was detained and is facing deportation.
Scenes like those are playing out in multiple cities in the San Joaquin Valley. Manuel Cunha, Jr., president of the farm advocacy group Nisei Farmers League in Fresno, said he estimates roughly 100 people have been detained in just the past few days.
KVPR contacted DHS’s Northern California regional office to confirm the number of detainments and the scope of enforcement operations.
Spokesperson Jason B. Sweeney highlighted five men who were detained, and who had criminal histories, but said “for operational security and the safety of our officers, ICE will not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations.”
The mass operation is expected to last 45 days, according to some reports. Most people are being taken to a processing center in downtown Fresno, where residents have held daily vigils.
Cunha, Jr., said he was “extremely disappointed” that the operation seems to be targeting specific individuals, such as Latinos and those at or near work sites.
“Unless you're one of those folks of color, you don't know what they’re seeing and what's going on, but it's real,” he said.
Community leaders with the faith nonprofit Faith in the Valley, said ICE detainments have happened in Selma, Kerman, Fresno, Madera and Chowchilla. Residents have reported seeing ICE agents in streets as far as Visalia.
Members of the nonprofit say they have witnessed ICE agents conducting “roving patrols” and traffic stops. Most have happened at gas stations, construction sites and roadsides.
The operation in Central California is happening as harvest season winds down for most of the season crops produced during spring and summer. Citrus harvesting – which is a year-round crop – is expected to pick up in the coming weeks.
Democratic Rep. Jim Costa said he’s concerned about the impact the immigration raids are having on the region, and the larger economy. He said keeping a stable agriculture industry is a matter of national security, and pushed during Friday’s press conference in Fresno for bipartisan legislation in Congress, such as the Dignity Act and the Farmworker Modernization Act.
He said those are solutions to a broken immigration system. He urged Congress to get workers on a path to legal status to avoid inflicting greater economic pain. He said a large majority of those being detained by ICE have no criminal records.
“More than half of those arrested – more than half – had neither been charged nor convicted of any crimes,” Costa said. “Fewer than four percent had a violent criminal conviction, and that's the worst of the worst.”
The Cato Institute, a nonpartisan public policy research firm, reported roughly similar figures last year.
A large majority of the agricultural workforce in the country is foreign born, and many lack legal status. One estimate by the Center for Migration Studies suggests as many as 86 percent are foreign-born, with about 45 lacking legal status. Costa and other officials noted it has been decades since the last meaningful immigration reform under President Ronald Reagan.
Costa said the Trump administration’s efforts to go after “the worst” in the current deportation campaign is missing the mark.
“The worst of the worst are not mothers and fathers heading to work to provide an income for their families. The worst of the worst are not hardworking people who have spent years contributing to our communities and our economy,” he said.
Dyer, the mayor of Fresno, a city with half a million residents, said he has seen videos of children crying as their parents were detained by immigration agents in recent days. He said those incidents will leave lasting trauma.
“It's something that they will remember their entire life, and it also causes them to distrust law enforcement,” Dyer, the city’s former police chief, said.
One ICE agent was shot by a homeowner in Fresno on Friday after he was found sleeping on the front lawn. Police said the agent appeared “intoxicated and agitated” during a physical confrontation with the homeowners.
The immigration raids come as residents are also facing high costs for fuel and groceries and as they head to the polls in a matter of weeks for the 2026 midterms.
Dyer said the economic pain is already hard enough for residents, let alone the lasting disruption the raids could have. Some images have even captured ICE agents detaining people at construction sites in Madera County.
“It's unnecessary and it is unacceptable, and is that really what we voted for in America? I don't believe so. I know I didn't,” Dyer said.
