Multi-faith group holds prayer vigils outside Fresno ICE facility as detentions rise
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- Faith in the Valley holds regular vigils outside Fresno ICE to protest detentions.
- Vigils aim to keep Central Valley families together and push policymakers for change.
- Group offers rapid response contacts, accompaniment and calls to remove ICE locally.
As immigration-related detentions rise in the Central Valley, a grassroots organization has been holding regular prayer vigils outside the ICE processing center in downtown Fresno.
Faith in the Valley, a multi-faith group focused on social justice and immigrant rights, said its prayer vigils provide a space for the community to come together.
A sign at the speakers’ podium at a prayer vigil earlier this month read, “Families Are Sacred,” and included symbols from multiple religious traditions. Another sign displayed the contact number for the Valley Watch Network, the rapid response hotline for ICE sightings run by Faith in the Valley.
“When laws are written in order to take kids away from their parents, my siblings of faith, let us speak up,” Simon Biasell, a pastor at the Big Red Church, said at the February vigil. “Let us remember it is our responsibility to comfort the afflicted.”
The vigil followed heightened concern about immigration enforcement after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents during an ICE surge in Minneapolis. Recent reports of immigrant detentions in the Fresno area — including during traffic stops and at ICE check-ins and green card appointments — have drawn widespread attention and increased turnout at community gatherings.
“Whatever has happened in Minnesota has awakened the consciousness of America and all of us,” said Dr. Sudarshan Kapoor, a Fresno State professor emeritus and member of the local Hindu community who’s lived in Fresno for six decades. “It’s very sad that we have to be here this morning.”
In a message posted on Instagram, Faith in the Valley said that across many faith traditions, congregants are taught “to protect the vulnerable and welcome the stranger,” adding that a vigil “is more than a gathering. It is a moral act and a refusal to look away.”
The organization also called for continued pressure on policymakers, urging people to demand accountability, advocate for the removal of ICE from local communities, and support those most affected by enforcement actions through accompaniment and sustained engagement.
Faith in the Valley is planning on another multi-faith prayer vigil on March 4 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the ICE processing center in Fresno.
This story was originally published February 15, 2026 at 5:45 AM.
