Fresno County sheriff urges undocumented residents to report crimes, seek help
Sheriff John Zanoni told undocumented Fresno County residents not to fear calling deputies, even as county records showed 63 ICE transfers in 2025.
Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni used the county’s annual TRUTH Act forum at the Hall of Records in downtown Fresno to make a direct appeal to undocumented residents: report crimes, call deputies when you need help, and do not let fear keep you silent. He paired that reassurance with statistics on people deputies arrested and later turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, putting the county’s immigration enforcement record on display in the same setting where it asked for public trust.
The practical risk for an undocumented Fresno resident is not zero, but it is tied to what happens after contact with deputies, not the act of calling for help itself. California’s TRUTH Act took effect Jan. 1, 2017, and state guidance says it created mandatory notice and procedural protections when federal immigration officers want to contact someone in local custody. In other words, the exposure point is typically jail custody and the county’s response to an ICE request, hold, or interview, not a routine plea for help in the field.
Zanoni said the sheriff’s office transferred 63 people to ICE in 2025, down from 102 in 2024. Those 2025 transfers followed 634 ICE hold requests. In 2024, the sheriff’s office said the 102 transfers came out of 26,214 bookings at the county jail, and that there were zero ICE interviews conducted in the jail that year. The 2024 transfers were classified as 52 crimes against persons, 41 property crimes, six felony drug crimes, and three sex crimes, with felony examples including domestic violence, DUI involving serious bodily injury or death, false imprisonment, burglary, assault and robbery.
The numbers sharpen the political stakes around Zanoni’s message. Fresno County, with an estimated population of 1,035,456 and a Hispanic or Latino population of 55.3%, has long been one of California’s most immigration-sensitive counties, where trust in local policing can determine whether witnesses speak up after a shooting, assault or burglary. County officials have said the 102 transfers in 2024 were a five-year high, while immigrant advocates have argued the goal should be zero transfers.
Zanoni has also pushed for more communication with ICE and changes to the California Values Act, the state law enacted by SB 54 that limits when local law enforcement can assist in federal immigration enforcement. His latest public appeal was designed to reassure families, but the county’s own TRUTH Act records show why that reassurance remains contested: undocumented residents who call for help may still face immigration consequences if the encounter leads to arrest, booking and a transfer into federal custody.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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