Why were plainclothes ICE agents making arrests in Madera this week? Here’s what we know
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in plain clothes made arrests at Madera County Superior Court in the past two weeks, according local law enforcement.
Kayla Gates, a spokesperson with the Madera County Sheriff’s Office, told The Bee that the ICE agents carried warrants for the arrests of specific people at the courthouse. She also confirmed that ICE operations have been overt and small-scale, with some arrests taking place Wednesday.
“(ICE) agents identified themselves, presented credentials, and declared their purpose as part of the regular security screening process,” Gates said. “We were not directly notified of any arrests they made. Deputies observed and made note of their activity.”
Gates also said ICE did not warn the Madera County Sheriff’s Office that agents would be making arrests in Madera County, though, like U.S. Border Patrol, the federal immigration enforcement agency doesn’t have to give prior notice to local law enforcement.
This week’s ICE sightings in Madera led a local TikTok user to post a widely circulated video warning about undercover agents making many arrests at the courthouse. Gates said social media accounts of ICE agents’ presence at the courthouse are a “gross embellishment of the incident.”
The ICE arrests in Madera, where many undocumented workers reside, come amid worries by the Central Valley’s immigrant community of mass deportations following a Border Patrol operation in Kern County earlier this month.
Social media has been rife with warnings about ICE or Border Patrol sightings in recent weeks, though many posts have contained unverified and falsified information, contributing to the spread of fear among the undocumented.
The Sheriff’s spokesperson did not have further details on how many arrests ICE made in Madera County. The Madera County courthouse administration declined to comment.
ICE did not responded to multiple requests for comment.
It remains unclear how many people ICE agents arrested in Madera, what they were arrested for, and how agents targeted the people they detained. Also unclear is whether the agents’ actions in Madera County this week are a part of the new directives from President Donald Trump’s administration that allow a wider range of immigration enforcement activities in sensitive locations, including courthouses, churches and schools.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration limited immigration enforcement in or near courthouses in 2021 to instances that posed risks to public safety, national security or evidence in criminal cases.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security issued a new directive Jan. 21, allowing immigration arrests in or near courthouses when ICE has “credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present at a specific location, and where such action is not precluded by laws imposed by the jurisdiction in which the civil immigration enforcement action will take place.”
Gates told The Bee that the Sheriff’s Office has not been made aware of any federal immigration enforcement actions in Madera County since 2018, when California passed a law prohibiting local law enforcement from aiding in federal immigration arrests.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 12:25 PM.
