ICE Surge Disrupts Central Valley Farm Communities

Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations across California’s Central Valley have disrupted agricultural work, cut school attendance and led organizers in Madera to postpone an annual cultural festival. The surge began last week. Residents, local officials and farmworker groups have reported detentions and enforcement patrols in rural communities.

Work, schools and community life

Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said the operations had cut school attendance and prompted student protests Friday. “We’re seeing across-the-board reduction of school attendance, substantial reduction in employees showing up to farm operations, packing sheds and in the fields. Construction has essentially come to a halt,” Arias said. “We’re seeing very few people out in the streets.”

The California Farm Bureau reaffirmed its support for agricultural workers and noted California is home to one-third of the nation’s agricultural workforce. A farmworker who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation said ICE officers stopped him last Tuesday as he drove to work with three others. He said the officers didn’t know his name and let him go after he declined to answer questions about where he was born and when he crossed the border.

In Madera, organizers postponed the third annual Oaxacan Guelaguetza festival amid growing fears, the group said on Facebook. Gloria Hernandez, a volunteer with the Valley Watch Network, said she noticed more activity at ICE’s downtown Fresno office in the days before the reported surge. She saw 17 black vehicles and what she described as “a bunch of new ICE people.” “They’re hitting the small towns, the rural areas, the farmworkers,” she said. “This surge is really horrible.”

Federal authority and local resistance

In Kerman, Mayor Maria Pacheco confronted ICE agents Thursday as they detained people. “You’re not welcome in my city,” she told an agent in a video posted on Facebook. “You’ve taken enough people yesterday. We don’t want you here.”

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents enforce the laws every day across the country, including in California. An unidentified spokesperson told The Times by email that “for operational security and the safety of our officers, ICE will not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations.” The spokesperson added: “Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country including in California.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom said reports of increased federal immigration agent activity across the state resulted from President Trump using “fear and panic as a weapon — putting families at risk, undermining our economy, and terrorizing communities.” Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers, condemned what she called a “brutal ICE surge.” She said warrantless stops and roving patrols by masked federal agents had been “terrorizing farm workers,” and described those targeted as “hard-working, long term members of our communities.”

Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns and national vice president of UFW, said farmworkers began reporting patrols on Oct. 6. She said the number of people detained remained unclear. Strater also said similar arrests were occurring in the Coachella Valley and Ventura County, where a preliminary injunction restricts civil arrests without a warrant. Authorities are investigating multiple vehicle accidents in Oxnard and Simi Valley involving ICE agents. “It’s total lawlessness,” Strater said.

Detentions and disputed accounts

A review of reported arrests found some detained people had recent arrests, while others appeared to have no criminal record. In Fresno, the children of Noelia Bautista and Cipriano Lopez started a GoFundMe after ICE detained their parents. They contend their parents were racially profiled. An unidentified Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed ICE arrested the couple last week, saying they had “illegally entered the U.S. at unknown times and places.” The spokesperson said immigration judges would hear their claims and they would receive due process, and rejected the profiling allegation as “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE.”

Prudencio Rivera, 31, said he entered the United States in 2023 through an asylum process, has a work permit and checks in with ICE once a month. After officers stopped him in Kerman, a Facebook livestream captured an officer saying the permit didn’t give him permission to live in the country and warning, “We’re going to break the window.” The video captured glass shattering. Rivera said agents detained him, checked his documents and record, then released him. “When they told me they were going to let me go, I was relieved,” he said. “Imagine, thinking they’re never going to let you leave.” DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment about what prompted the stop.