This story was originally published by Fresnoland.
Immigration attorneys in California are sounding the alarm on a new trend: When migrants with ongoing immigration cases show up to routine mandated check-ins, federal authorities swiftly take them into custody.
The practice has been documented in several states including New York, Michigan, Alabama and Illinois. A similar situation took place Sunday morning — on Father’s Day — outside a downtown Fresno office where undocumented immigrants are required to check in.
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains undocumented people at detention facilities across the United States, the federal agency allows some of them to remain in their communities as long as they report to routine check-ins under the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program.
GEO Group, a private contractor with ICE, handles the ISAP check-in process for the federal government, and they have an office at 764 P St. in downtown Fresno.
At 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, three unmarked vehicles with California license plates swerved to a stop in front of GEO Group’s downtown Fresno office. At the same time, individuals in plainclothes, covering their faces with neck gaiters, took two men outside the office and into a Ford SUV before all three vehicles sped off.
The entire episode took less than 15 seconds. The two men, who appeared to be taken into custody, had previously entered the ISAP downtown office less than a half hour prior.
Immigration attorney Jesús Ibañez said what transpired early Sunday outside GEO Group’s downtown Fresno office was no different than what’s happening across the country.
“It was very aggressive,” said Ibañez, who is the director of immigration services at the Education and Leadership Foundation. “It was individuals wearing masks. They themselves look like bad faith actors. There’s nothing to identify them as government agents.”
Four immigration attorneys confirmed to Fresnoland that migrants across California with active immigration cases received a notification on Friday requiring them to report for a mandated ISAP check-in on Saturday or Sunday.
“It’s really sad,” Ibañez said. “It’s causing a lot of confusion, causing a lot of chaos, causing a lot of fear.”
Many undocumented immigrants in the Central Valley were told to report to an office in San Francisco.
Ibañez told Fresnoland that he’s heard numerous stories of immigrants driving at least 150 miles to San Francisco to show up to a Saturday check-in, only to be told by GEO Group staff to instead report to the Fresno office on P Street.
“I know at least three people who showed up today who told me that they went to San Francisco, only to be told to come back to Fresno to do their check in here,” Ibañez said.
Rosemary Gomez, another attorney, was volunteering to provide support to undocumented immigrants who showed up for check-ins Sunday. She said it created chaos to be notified about a mandated check-in all the way in the Bay Area.
“This is for clients that live here in the Central Valley being called in on Friday afternoon to report the next day, Saturday morning, at an ICE office in San Francisco,” Gomez said. “The whole situation is just strange and sort of sinister.”
Another red flag to immigration attorneys is that their clients were notified about weekend check-ins with barely a 24-hour notice. Several attorneys told Fresnoland they had never seen that before.
“To me it shows how ICE and DHS and different federal agencies are organizing to sort of create obstacles to access legal counsel,” Gomez said. “A huge issue is access to due process because on the weekends, we know that courts are closed. A lot of offices are closed. Not a lot of attorneys are available to show up and check in and support their clients.”
An ICE spokesperson, who didn’t share a name, said via email that “all illegal aliens are afforded due process.”
“Those arrested had executable final orders of removal by an immigration judge and had not complied with that order,” the ICE spokesperson said. “If you are in the country illegally and a judge has ordered you to be removed, that is precisely what will happen.”
The spokesperson did not respond to questions about the total number of undocumented immigrants detained by ICE either at or outside the ISAP office in downtown Fresno. The spokesperson also didn’t say whether it’s a practice for ICE to detain undocumented people at ISAP check-ins, and also didn’t provide reasoning for why check-ins were scheduled last-minute over the weekend.
What exactly are routine check-ins?
The federal ISAP program, which allows migrants to remain in their communities provided they show up to mandated check-ins, is specifically for people who are not a public safety danger and have family or community ties, according to the ICE website.
The private prison contractor GEO Group, which operates detention facilities for ICE and runs the ISAP program, is expected to rake in more than $1 billion in revenue as the main contractor carrying out President Donald Trump’s deportation plans.
Federal authorities have noted the cost savings to have undocumented immigrants report for ISAP check-ins, rather than detaining them at a facility. However, under Trump, ICE is trying to meet a quota of detaining 3,000 undocumented immigrants every day.
Edith Sangueza, an attorney representing a mother who has been in the United States with her 5-year-old son for close to four years, told Fresnoland that her client was originally told Friday to report to an ISAP check-in at a San Francisco office.
An hour later, she was told to instead report to the Fresno ISAP office by Sunday. Sangueza said it was odd because her client had just had a Thursday check-in, where authorities put a GPS monitor on her ankle.
“There’s no question that she’s been compliant — they can monitor her location,” said Sangueza, who works at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies. “It doesn’t make sense that she would need to be called in for another interview three days later.”
Sangueza, like other immigration attorneys, had similar concerns about the intent behind mandated weekend check-ins.
“It certainly feels like it’s a ruse to get people to report and then detain them,” Sangueza said. “ICE, for years, has done ruses — like they’ll go to someone’s door and lie about who they are to get someone to open the door.”
Sangueza said the tactic of getting undocumented immigrants to show up for weekend check-ins feels like an escalation, especially in the wake of ICE’s daily quota.
“If you’re trying to do mass deportations, then it is grabbing the most vulnerable people who are compliant and have been going to their appointments and going to their hearings,” Sangueza said. “It means things like grabbing women and kids.”
Protesters show support for undocumented immigrants
On Sunday, at least 100 community members gathered outside the ISAP office in downtown Fresno, protesting against mass deportations.
Following the two men getting taken away by what appeared to be authorities in plainclothes Sunday morning, protesters made their way to the entrance outside the office’s front door.
Later, at least five undocumented immigrants showed up for check-ins, including the mother represented by Sangueza. They all made it out without being taken away by ICE, and some of them said their appointments simply got canceled.
Ibañez, the attorney with the Education and Leadership Foundation, said community members being out in numbers may have forced the ISAP office to cancel appointments.
The ISAP office in San Francisco appeared to be closed on Saturday after protesters showed up en masse outside the office, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Showing up in force, showing up in community does work,” Ibañez said. “It’s very important going forward to have these concerted efforts.”