ICE detentions force more Central California undocumented residents to self-deport
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- ICE detentions in Fresno prompt rising self-deportation among undocumented residents
- Attorneys report ICE reviving closed cases, limiting time for legal response
- Immigration arrests near courthouses and check-ins discourage crime reporting
Fresno hasn’t experienced the large-scale immigration raids seen in Southern California, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains active in the area. Local immigration attorneys say clients who’ve been detained by ICE ahead of court hearings or routine check-ins face a difficult decision — fight their case or self-deport.
Increasingly, many are choosing to self-deport to Mexico, Guatemala and other countries in Central and South America, returning to the same violence and instability they once escaped.
“Individuals are self-deporting to their countries of origin, only to be met with violence in their country of origin because they truly are running from dangerous situations,” said Jesus Ibañez, an immigration attorney in Fresno with the Community Agency for Resources, Advocacy, and Services.
Immigration attorneys also say ICE is moving to reopen cases that were previously closed, including those involving unaccompanied minors and immigrants who applied for visas granted to victims of serious crimes. Oftentimes, attorneys say, immigrants have one or two days to respond to the motion.
Legal experts say these “bad faith” tactics employed by ICE not only pressure people to self-deport, but also make it less likely criminal suspects are charged if victims or witnesses who are undocumented become less willing to report alleged perpetrators and cooperate with law enforcement.
“There are just so many problems with this situation,” said Olga Grosh, an attorney with the Pasifika Immigration Law Group in Fresno.
In an emailed statement to The Bee, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson blamed the Biden administration for “releasing millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals.”
“Secretary Kristi Noem is reversing Biden’s catch-and-release policy that allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets,” the statement said. “This Administration is once again implementing the rule of law.”
The spokesperson said “most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals.”
“If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings,” the statement said. “But if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation.”
Self-deportations rising in Fresno
For many immigrants who have ICE check-ins scheduled or have already been detained by ICE in the Central Valley, self-deportation can seem like the best option.
“A lot of individuals are self-deporting. I have 20 individuals in the past month who did. Because of all the policy changes, the uncertainty, and the fear, some choose to leave voluntarily in an effort to preserve whatever dignity they can,” Ibañez said. “In their eyes, it’s better to walk away on their own terms than to be hunted down, labeled a fugitive, or forcibly removed.”
Ibañez said many of his clients are choosing not to continue fighting their cases in court, even though they may have strong reasons to do so.
One of Ibañez’s clients who is facing the possibility of deportation arrived in the U.S. with his family through the CBP One app, a mobile application launched by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which allows certain noncitizens to schedule appointments and present themselves at a port of entry to seek asylum.
Ibañez said his client was fleeing drug-related violence in his home country — violence that left him with multiple gunshot wounds. Despite his asylum claim, his client’s history of previous entries into the U.S. triggered detention under new policy changes. Now, he faces a difficult choice: either self-deport voluntarily or fight his asylum case while confined in detention — a process made even more complicated after he was detained without warning at a recent routine ICE check-in.
“Last I spoke with him, he was leaning towards self-deportation. He does have a valid asylum case, but he doesn’t want to be detained,” Ibañez said. “He’s been kidnapped in his home country, and he’s now facing unfair detention, so it’s triggering a trauma for him.”
Meanwhile, another one of Ibañez’s clients was detained after attending a scheduled ICE check-in related to a previous deportation order. Although she tried to appeal and had legal representation, there wasn’t enough time for Ibañez to file a strong case. She was eligible for immigration relief as a crime victim in the U.S., but it wasn’t enough to stop her deportation.
“She went to her check-in, knowing that check-in was going to be her last time free in the United States, and now she’s being processed,” Ibañez said.
ICE arrests at Fresno County courthouse
Fresno attorney George Rios, of the Cook & Olson law firm, said one of his clients was recently arrested after showing up for a case conference at Fresno County Superior Court. The client was previously granted deferred action — meaning he’s not a priority for deportation — by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, Rios said. He said his client has a pending application for a U visa, which protects immigrant victims from deportation to encourage them to report crimes and cooperate with prosecutors.
Rios’ client was convicted of a crime himself, though the attorney said it was not one that would make him ineligible for a U visa or legal residency.
“He was presenting himself, just checking in and seeing where he was with some classes the court had ordered,” Rios said, “and he was picked up.”
Though Rios maintained contact with his client, the attorney said his name did not show up in ICE’s detainee locator system for more than a week after the arrest.
Speaking generally, Rios said ICE’s arrests of U visa applicants could mean they are not able to testify in court against alleged perpetrators. In some cases, that could mean people who commit serious crimes get to walk free, he said.
“The message that this sends is that, not only should immigrants not feel comfortable beginning a legal immigration process, but they shouldn’t feel comfortable reporting anything,” Rios said.
Father’s Day arrests during Fresno check-ins
Attorney Rosemary Gomez said, many Fresno-area immigrants in ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, including one of her clients, received unexpected notices last month to appear in San Francisco for check-ins. The ISAP program allows people to remain in their communities and show up for routine check-ins as they navigate legal proceedings.
Some who showed up in San Francisco were then rerouted back to Fresno. The morning of Father’s Day, federal agents arrested two men outside the ISAP office downtown, according to cell phone footage posted on social media.
Gomez said local attorneys had sensed something strange about the abrupt notices for weekend check-ins. They quickly organized a downtown protest on Father’s Day, which Gomez said led the Fresno ISAP office to shut down for the rest of the day.
“Unfortunately, there were two detentions that took place very early in the morning,” she said. “But there were several showing up who couldn’t complete their check-ins because the office closed. So, potentially, we avoided a couple more detentions.”
Gomez, who volunteers as an attorney for the Valley Watch Network, said the group is adding volunteers who can quickly mobilize to accompany immigrants to their required routine check-ins.
“We won’t be able to prevent many arrests,” she said. “But we will be able to quickly get people connected to legal services and other resources in the event of a of a detention.”
ICE revives closed cases, including those involving minors
Grosh, the attorney with Fresno’s Pasifika law firm, said ICE is moving to put cases that were previously administratively closed back court calendars.
She said immigrants’ cases can be administratively closed — which means they are taken off an active calendar — for various reasons: They might be eligible for an immigration benefit that ICE or the presiding judge have no power over. This includes cases of immigrants who apply for U visas and those who have children who are approaching the age when they can petition for their parents’ legal status. Many cases, Grosh said, were administratively closed by ICE itself under the previous administration.
Grosh said ICE is now moving to “re-calendar” cases of unaccompanied minors who are waiting on a special protected immigration status for children who have been abandoned or suffered abuse. ICE is also pursuing cases involving “victims of crime, domestic violence and violent assault who have cooperated with police,” she said.
To Grosh, the way ICE is going about this effort raises questions.
She said her office is receiving motions that indicate ICE is not actually reviewing cases. Some motions are for cases closed months ago and others are for cases closed years ago. But the motions are “absolutely identical, and have no reference at all to the immigrants’ actual case information.”
Grosh added that, by the time they receive the motions in the mail, immigrants have one or two days left out of a 10-day response period.
“It does not seem that when the ICE attorney is signing this motion, that that’s the day that this motion is actually being put in the mail, because it doesn’t take almost eight or nine days for mail to arrive,” she said.
This creates an added challenge to responding, Grosh said, especially for immigrants who don’t have legal representation because their cases were closed long ago.
“It’s called bad faith,” she said of ICE’s tactics. “All of the cases I’ve been seeing are past the 10-day response period.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 6:30 AM.
