ICE raids are misdirected in targeting a hard-working immigrant community | Opinion

ICE raids not civil

Imagine you are picked up by masked, unidentified men and shipped to a detention center. You are white, have held a good job for the past 20 years and contribute positively to society in this country. Reason for your detention? You had a speeding ticket which is known as a civil violation.

Imagine you are picked up by masked, unidentified men and shipped to a detention center. You are Latino, have held a good job for the past 20 years and contribute positively to society in this country. Reason for your detention? You are undocumented which is known as a civil violation.

Note that in both situations, the victims are not criminals although the U.S. President paints all members of one group as criminals, rapists, gang members, etc.

Studies show that undocumented people in the U.S. are less likely to commit crimes than US citizens. In California, they paid $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022 and pay into Social Security and Medicare through payroll taxes — programs that they are typically barred from accessing.

Congress must develop a plan for citizenship that works instead of having these crazy and destructive ICE agents destroying our communities.

Where will low-income residents facing eviction, foreclosure, or stolen wages turn without free legal aid? The President’s budget has proposed eliminating the Legal Services Corporation, the nation’s largest funder of free civil legal aid. Unlike people charged with a crime, individuals with civil legal issues are not guaranteed free attorney representation. Grants from LSC help nonprofits meet this critical need by providing legal services to low-income residents with civil legal challenges, including evictions, stolen wages, and discrimination.

Stephen Sacks, Fresno

Time to resist

Masked, unmarked agents dressed for war kidnapping people off the street then deporting them to parts unknown: ICE raids are exercises in terrorism. The Trump administration is clearly using violence and threats of violence for political aims; no reasonable mind questions this. ICE agents are domestic, state-sponsored terrorists.

We the People have the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms to protect ourselves against this tyranny. We have the right to protect our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. If our municipal police and county sheriffs will not stand between the people and these domestic terrorists, we the people not only have the right to fill this gap, we have the duty to do so.

This letter is not a call to violence; rather, it is simply a definition of the terms before us. Resistance is the highest form of patriotism. We the people are called now to Resist. Resist.

James Redfern, Coalinga

Story missed context

The Fresno Bee’s recent article, “Are Latinos in Fresno County less likely to be entrepreneurs? What study shows,” misses important context regarding the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute’s report on Latino entrepreneurship in Fresno County.

Our analysis focuses on self-employment, one segment of the entrepreneurial landscape. Latino entrepreneurship takes many forms, including formal business ownership, informal work, sole proprietorships, and gig-based activity. Additionally, given the source of our data, it may not reflect the impact of local interventions like CVIIC’s Immigrant Entrepreneurship Program, which provides training, access to resources, and technical assistance to entrepreneurs.

We do not attribute lower entrepreneurship rates to individual ambition or traits, as suggested by the article’s framing. Our data highlights systemic barriers in Fresno County — poverty, limited capital access, and educational disparities — that hinder Latinos’ economic mobility despite their contributions.

Our goal is to support accurate, asset-based, and policy-relevant narratives.

Rodrigo Dominguez Villegas, UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute

Legal help threatened

My organization, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc., receives about one-third of its funding from the Legal Services Corporation. Last year, CRLA closed over 2,800 cases for low-income Valley residents — helping families stay in their homes, recover unpaid wages, defend their rights to K-12 education, and keep their health insurance. CRLA helped Valley residents secure over $2.4 million in financial benefits, including money recovered and fees waived.

Eliminating LSC would drastically reduce the legal resources for low-income residents, especially in rural areas like the Valley, where few attorneys are available. Investments in legal aid also make financial sense, as it is more cost-effective to help families facing eviction avoid homelessness than to try to get them back into housing, employment, and education after they have been evicted.

Eryn Balderica-Guy, Fresno

Operation Shock Collar

How is it that the Fresno Bee failed to cover, in even a superficial way, “Operation Shock Collar,” which filed charges against 92 people, 38 of them for federal violations, and the seizure of illegal weapons and drugs, in Huron and Coalinga? Is it not a priority of the Fresno Bee to report on the dismantling of gang operations? The task force press conference handed the whole operation on a platter.

What is the excuse for failing to cover a massive a law enforcement operation involving 550 personnel including the FBI, Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, and a twenty-five other law enforcement agencies?

Puzzled.

Richard Steven Street, San Anselmo