What's at stake:
Despite a drop in jail-to-ICE transfers this year, tensions over public safety, immigration enforcement, and community trust continue to drive calls for the Board of Supervisors to reassess Fresno County’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement under SB 54.
Fresno Sheriff John Zanoni says that 63 people were transferred from his office into ICE custody in 2025, down from 102 transfers in 2024.
The sheriff’s remarks came Tuesday morning during a public forum required under California’s TRUTH Act as Zanoni presented the annual report to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors on ICE access to incarcerated people in the Fresno County Jail.
“My recommendation of the board is that we comply with SB 54 as it is written, and continue to take care of those individuals that have committed, as you saw earlier on the slides, these very serious felony crimes,” Zanoni said. “That is the law, that is what we’re going to comply with. This is not about politics, it is about public safety, and that is my focus as sheriff.”
Zanoni said the sheriff’s office booked 27,164 people in 2025 and received 634 ICE detainers or holds, requests from ICE asking local law enforcement to hold someone in custody beyond their release date so ICE can assume custody. No ICE interviews were conducted in county jail facilities, he said, and the transfers were carried out in compliance with California’s SB 54 law.
Of the 63 people transferred to ICE:
- 36 involved crimes against persons,
- including four sex crimes,
- 13 involved property crimes, and
- 10 involved felony drug or DUI charges.
Zanoni said the most common offenses were felony domestic violence and theft charges. Other cases included narcotics sales and transportation, including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl, as well as weapons offenses such as possession of machine guns.
California’s TRUTH Act requires local law enforcement agencies that allow ICE access to people in custody to present annual reports at public meetings.
Zanoni previously shared with Fresnoland that Fresno County no longer allows ICE agents to arrest people inside the jail vestibule — a significant shift from policies under former Sheriff Margaret Mims. In 2016, Mims publicly supported President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement plans and allowed ICE agents to operate inside the Fresno County jail to identify and arrest undocumented people booked on criminal charges.
Zanoni, in the interview late last year, said the policy changed before he took office in January 2023, though he could not recall exactly when. Earlier this year, he criticized California’s sanctuary law, SB 54 and has also previously said that local immigration enforcement practices would not change under a second Trump administration.
The Trump administration has been using the 287(g) program under the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow ICE to partner with state and local law enforcement agencies, authorizing certain local officers to carry out limited federal immigration enforcement duties, including identifying, detaining and processing people for potential deportation.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office does not have a 287(g) agreement, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s U.S. map.
Around 400,000 people have been booked into ICE detention since the Trump administration began, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institute. Detention capacity is expected to grow further with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocating $45 billion toward expanding detention facilities.
Immigrant organizers urge end to voluntary cooperation with ICE
After the sheriff’s annual report concluded Tuesday, Nora Zaragoza-Yáñez, program manager for Faith in the Valley, urged county officials to further reduce transfers to ICE and increase transparency around cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Zaragoza-Yáñez said the purpose of California’s Truth Act is not simply to “collect statistics,” but to create accountability around how local agencies interact with ICE and how those interactions affect immigrant families and community trust.
She called on the county to “limit all voluntary cooperation with ICE to the fullest extent possible under California law,” arguing that ICE notifications, interviews, hold requests and transfers increase the risk of family separation and create fear in immigrant communities.
Zaragoza-Yáñez also urged local law enforcement to stop allowing ICE agents to use county-owned property for immigration enforcement operations, saying that the use of jail parking lots, sheriff substations and county facilities signals to the public that local government is participating in immigration enforcement.
Jessica Flores, a community organizer with the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), said fear of deportation is preventing immigrant community members from reporting crimes, cooperating as witnesses and seeking help from law enforcement.
While acknowledging that ICE transfers in Fresno County have decreased, Flores said “our goal should be zero transfers”, arguing that California’s SB 54 law was intended to limit immigration enforcement cooperation, “not an invitation to find justification for cooperation.”
Sariat Martinez, executive director of Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO) said years of work to build trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement are being undermined by current immigration enforcement efforts, which she said are “limiting that security, not just for our communities, but for everyone.”
Board of Supervisors support SB 54 compliance
Board Chair Garry Bredefeld said federal immigration agents are “simply enforcing federal law” and helping remove people involved in violent crime, drug trafficking and sex trafficking from the community.
Board Vice Chair Luis Chavez said there is broad agreement that individuals “committing crimes” should be removed from neighborhoods, but he raised concerns about federal immigration enforcement actions affecting people “just going to work,” including workers and street vendors who have not committed crimes.
Chavez said SB 54 is intended to limit local participation in federal immigration enforcement and noted his support for maintaining compliance while preserving community trust in the sheriff’s office.
