‘ICE is present almost daily,’ Madera police chief says. Is the agency’s presence growing?
The presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Madera has increased since President Donald Trump took office, according to the the city’s police chief.
“ICE is present almost daily,” Madera Police Chief Giachino Chiaramonte told a group of concerned residents, many of them immigrants or the children of immigrants, at a Tuesday evening community meeting.
The chief’s comments come as many undocumented residents in the Central Valley fear mass deportations during Trump’s second term.
Two weeks ago, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office confirmed ICE arrests at Madera County Superior Court. Last week, Madera Unified experienced a massive drop in attendance after students skipped school to protest mass deportations. Madera City Council members in recent days have weighed making a public declaration of support for immigrants without jeopardizing federal funding the Trump administration has threatened to withhold from cities with so-called sanctuary policies.
Chiaramonte, City Council members, school district officials, county supervisors and sheriff’s officers sought to ease community fears.
“Oftentimes, just the presence of ICE does not mean they’re doing a blanketed approach of going out and contacting every person they’re seeing and asking for their immigration status,” Chiaramonte said. “Majority of the time, they have a warrant in hand.”
ICE declined to say how many arrests its federal agents have made in the county since Trump’s inauguration and whether they’ve increased their presence locally.
“Due to our operational tempo and the increased interest in our agency, we are not able to research and respond to rumors or specifics of routine daily operations for ICE,” an ICE spokesperson said Wednesday in an email to The Bee.
Has ICE presence in Madera increased?
Although Chiaramonte said ICE has increased its presence in Madera, the police chief also noted that federal immigration agents have operated in the city for many years.
He acknowledged rising fears of deportation due to the Trump administration’s recent repeal of a Biden era directive that stopped federal immigration agents from making routine arrests at “sensitive locations,” such as churches, schools and courthouses.
Chiaramonte confirmed ICE’s recent presence at the Madera County courthouse, but said agents also have served warrants there in past years.
“Some of the things they are doing are some of the things they’ve done year in and year out,” Chiaramonte said. “But it is a heightened response and a heightened fear.”
Alyson Crafton, Madera Unified director of student services, told community members that “there has not been any known interaction” with ICE agents at local schools.
Crafton said school district staff have been trained on how to react to inquiries from immigration agents, including how to recognize the difference between a warrant signed by a federal judge and an ICE warrant, which does not authorize agents to enter a private space.
ICE agents will not be allowed access to students or their information without a warrant signed by a federal judge, Crafton said. If agents present that warrant, staff must document the encounter and immediately contact the district’s legal counsel.
Chiaramonte said local supervisors from Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit within ICE, told him they have “no plans to go on campuses and do any kind of enforcement action.”
Police, sheriff’s role in ICE enforcement
Both the police chief and Madera County assistant sheriffs assured community members that their departments abide by AB 54, known as the California Values Act. The state law prohibits local law enforcement from using their resources to aid in federal immigration enforcement. The law has exceptions, including for people who have committed serious violent crimes.
“I want to be very clear, there could be instances where we do collaborate with (ICE),” Chiaramonte said. “If they’re working in town and there’s some type of emergency where someone could be in danger, we may assist in that realm.”
He said ICE will sometimes notify the police department — for “de-confliction” purposes — of its intent to carry out an operation in Madera.
But, in response to a question about whether local officials would announce ICE’s presence, Chiaramonte said the Madera police “will not be interfering with what their (ICE’s) job role is.”
“It’s just not something that’s safe for either the community or their job,” he said.
Madera County Assistant Sheriff Brian Esteves said it’s typical for ICE to send “detainers” when an immigrant is booked and fingerprinted in jail. These are requests that the arresting agency notify ICE of an immigrant’s release date and that the jail hold them past that date for federal agents.
Esteves said the Madera County Sheriff’s Office only honors those requests if the California Values Act permits it, such as when someone has been convicted of serious crimes. Historically, Esteves said, the Sheriff’s Office has not transferred very many detainees to federal immigration officials.
“Sometimes it’s one a year and most times we report zero,” he said. “Obviously, under this administration, I anticipate that to pick up. We’ve already had two this year that we’ve had to turn over.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
