ICE enforcement surge upends California’s most contested congressional race

Esmeralda Soria has seen immigration enforcement throughout her life. Born to immigrant farmworkers in the Central Valley, the state assemblymember has spent her entire life in California’s agricultural powerhouse. Yet even for her, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that shook the valley last week took her by surprise. 

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“I have never experienced anything like this,” Soria said in an SFGATE interview Sunday. “Just all of a sudden, now we’re seeing ICE go rogue.”

Federal agents have spent the past week sweeping the Central Valley, with local immigrant advocates reporting officers conducting widespread, warrantless detentions, targeting gas stations and Mexican bakeries as farmworkers start their day. People have reportedly been detained without any warrants for their arrest. 

The chaos turned violent when an off-duty ICE officer allegedly passed out drunk and assaulted a Fresno homeowner only to get shot himself, according to police. 

Communities across the valley, including the San Joaquin Valley in the region’s south, are now terrified of further detentions. Community groups have postponed public events, and schools have reported an increase in student absences. Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, a Republican, condemned the raids as “disturbing” and called out a video showing ICE agents arresting a man in front of his screaming children.

For local Democrats, the raids are an obvious attempt by the Trump administration to instill fear in the immigrant community and stop people from voting in this year’s midterm elections. 

“They are trying to do anything they can to suppress the vote and rig the election,” Soria said.

Latino voters are being closely watched, as they will largely decide who wins the valley’s 22nd Congressional District, a battleground seat currently held by Republican Rep. David Valadao. It’s one of the most watched races in the country and central to either party’s control over Congress.

Conservative news outlets, including the Washington Examiner, have reported that unnamed ICE sources said they were aiming to arrest all people living in California without authorization, even if they did not have a criminal record, under “Operation Safe California,” which would last through mid-November. The Department of Homeland Security declined to answer SFGATE’s questions about the raids, including if the raids are aimed at suppressing Latino voters. An unnamed spokesperson said they would not disclose details about law enforcement operations. 

Valadao, who voted for President Donald Trump’s massive increase in ICE funding, did not return multiple SFGATE requests for comment and declined to answer in-person questions from a reporter on Friday. He released a statement Thursday that said the raids are focused only on people with “active warrants and known criminal histories.” 

Local advocates have strongly disputed that characterization, saying that people without criminal records are being detained. Fresno city councilmember Miguel Arias told SFGATE Friday that one of his constituents, with no criminal history and a legal right to be in the United States, was detained while he was cutting his own lawn. 

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“They’re not serving search warrants with specific targets, it’s all random,” Arias said.

Valadao’s Democratic opponent, Randy Villegas, said in a phone interview with SFGATE Monday morning that the raids are clearly aimed at suppressing the vote.

“This is the most Latino district in California, and what we’re seeing right now is a blatant attempt to try to suppress the vote,” Villegas said. 

Villegas pointed out that his Republican opponent said, “It is what it is,” when discussing in a debate last week the immigration raids in the valley.

“I think it’s pathetic and disgusting that Valadao claims to be a moderate on this issue when he voted to triple ICE’s budget and has remained silent while ICE terrorizes our communities,” Villegas said.

Nora Zaragoza-Yáñez, a manager at Faith in the Valley, a faith-based nonprofit that helps immigrant families entangled in the raids, agreed that ICE’s operation is aimed at discouraging voting. She called the raids the largest in years and said the officers are targeting anyone who looks Hispanic. 

“People are afraid to leave their house,” Zaragoza-Yáñez said in a phone interview Friday. “They are afraid to take their kids to school. They have numerous calls from families asking if it is safe to take my kid to school.”

Soria, the assemblymember, said she thinks the surge will actually increase Latino turnout, as voters are reminded that this year’s vote could affect how the government enforces immigration.

“I think it will backfire, that is what many of us are trying to mobilize our community,” Soria said.