Finally, a County is willing to obey the law and protect its citizens. While the citizens of Ventura County under Sheriff Fryhoff and Riverside County Chad Bianco, has law enforcement helping and protecting criminals from foreign countries, Fresno is standing up for safe communities.
“In an eight-minute video posted on Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig’s Facebook page, Sheriff John Zanoni said the California Values Act limits his agency’s ability to keep the public safe because it cannot contact U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement when it has undocumented individuals who have committed serious crimes in its custody.
“It really ties our hands, when in fact, the communication would save us all a lot of trouble and would reduce fear in our community,” Zanoni said.”
I do not feel safe in Riverside or Ventura counties—do you?
Fresno County officials criticize California law prohibiting ICE cooperation
consider lawsuit
By Melissa Montalvo, Fresno Bee, 2/13/25 https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article300216819.html
Fresno County officials criticized a 2017 state law that prevents local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials and urged for reform or even litigation against the law.
In an eight-minute video posted on Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig’s Facebook page, Sheriff John Zanoni said the California Values Act limits his agency’s ability to keep the public safe because it cannot contact U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement when it has undocumented individuals who have committed serious crimes in its custody.
“It really ties our hands, when in fact, the communication would save us all a lot of trouble and would reduce fear in our community,” Zanoni said.
Passed during the last Trump administration in 2017, the California Values Act prohibits local law enforcement from asking for someone’s immigration status or using local resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement.
When individuals in the country without authorization are taken into custody for serious crimes such as violent felonies, Zanoni said his department is not allowed to communicate with ICE, even if the individual has committed a crime that’s subject to deportation.
“I cannot do a simple thing as just pick up the phone and contact ICE” to let them know a criminal is in custody, Zanoni said. “So, really, it diminishes our ability to provide public safety.”
Zanoni said that if his agency was allowed to communicate directly with ICE, it would lead to fewer arrests by federal immigration officers, though provided no evidence to support that.
If someone is taken into custody of Fresno County jail for a DUI, for example, they are likely released after three to four hours, he said. ICE could then check public jail records and find the individual’s last known address and take them into their custody.
“But they’ll also find people that potentially are just here undocumented and are not involved in criminal activity. And they will also be taken up at the same time,” Zanoni said. This is often referred to as “collateral damage” during immigration enforcement operations.
Zanoni said there would be less fear in the community if ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection could come directly to the jail and “deal with the criminals who are the real issue.”
ICE generally focuses its resources on arresting and removing migrants from the U.S. interior who pose public safety threats and have had contact with the criminal justice system. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 79 percent of ICE deportations from the interior in fiscal years 2021 to 2024 were of someone with a criminal conviction.
However, Trump officials have directed ICE officials to “aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500,” The Washington Post reported last month.
A Border Patrol operation in Kern County last month rippled fear and misinformation across the Valley. More than 60 Border Patrol agents from El Centro, near the Mexico border, carried out the three-day “Operation Return to Sender” in early January that the federal agency says led to 78 arrests. Immigrant rights advocates such as the United Farm Worker Foundation estimate close to 200 individuals were detained and that farmworkers were stopped on their way to work.
There are an estimated 77,000 undocumented immigrants in Fresno County, according to Migration Policy Institute, a majority of whom are from Mexico or Central America, or about 7.5% of the county population.
An analysis by the American Immigration Council found that higher immigrant population shares are not associated with higher crime rates. Other studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans.
“The message I also want to send out there is that we understand that immigrants and undocumented individuals, they provide valuable services and they do good things in our community,” Zanoni said. “But the criminals, we have to find a better way to handle this with the criminals. Because these people are a danger to public safety.”
Fresno County supervisor wants to change state law
Magisg, who represents Fresno County’s 5th District, which includes a large swath of the eastern county stretching from Clovis to the foothill communities, disagrees with the state law.
“Because we’re not able to work with the federal government, they go out and commit more crimes and create more victims,” Magsig said.
He said that he plans to lobby the California Legislature to introduce legislation to change the California Values Act.
“I’m even open to getting involved with a lawsuit,” he said.
Magsig said the law was in violation of an elected official’s oath to uphold the constitution of the state of California and of the United States.
Zanoni said 12 of his California sheriff peers are also “very frustrated” with the law.
Last week, Clovis City Councilmember Diane Pearce and some members of the public criticized the state law and called for Clovis to become a “non-sanctuary” city. The idea, which was rejected by her council colleagues, would affirm the city’s cooperation with the federal government on immigration enforcement — in defiance of state law.
Fellow councilmembers shot down the idea because it would be asking police officers to defy state law.
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