FRESNO, Calif. — Central Valley detention facilities have denied attorneys access to detainees picked up by ICE in Fresno and the region during an immigration enforcement surge that started early last week, lawyers say.

Many of those detainees have already been transferred to a Texas facility after they agreed to sign voluntary departure forms, says attorney Ambar Tovar, director of Legal Services with the United Farm Workers Foundation.

She said family members have reported to the foundation that detention facility officers appear to be pressuring detainees to sign the forms and circumvent their due process rights.

“Speaking to their relatives, they’re saying every so often an officer will come to where they’re being held and say, ‘All right, who’s ready to sign?,’” she said. “It’s a tactic of not providing the opportunity to consult and look into their immigration relief options.”

“They are making these decisions despite asking for legal counsel and not having the opportunity to consult with someone,” Tovar said.

The UFW Foundation and its partner organizations have identified the names of 65 people detained in Fresno County since the start of last week, she said, adding that the true number of detentions is likely much higher.

Community groups and social media users last week began reporting increased ICE enforcement in the Fresno area that relies on racial profiling tactics and roving patrols near locations where immigrant workers are likely to be found.

Many of the people detained, Tovar says, are taken from the downtown Fresno ICE office to the Golden State Annex and Central Valley Annex detention facilities in McFarland in Kern County. Tovar says staff told her the detainees she is looking for do not appear in ICE’s locator system because of an update delay, so they cannot grant her access.

Bree Bernwanger, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, told The Bee that “non-citizens and alleged non-citizens” have a right to see a judge and to obtain legal counsel.

“They have a right to consult with a lawyer before they make decisions that could separate them from their families for decades,” she said. “From what we have seen ... ICE is not respecting those rights.”

The GEO Group Inc., a private company that operates the facilities, would not comment and instead referred The Bee to ICE. When The Bee contacted ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS requested the names and immigrant identifying numbers, called “A-numbers,” of Central Valley detainees that the attorneys have been trying to contact.

A DHS spokesperson then said the agency needs the names to be able to verify details about detainees’ cases or even their existence. The agency provided the names of five immigrants with criminal backgrounds detained in California and said federal law enforcement is targeting public safety threats.

Attorney: Central Valley ICE detainees transferred to Texas

Tovar says people detained in the McFarland facilities have confirmed their location in phone calls and told family members they want to see a lawyer. But the ICE locator update delay means they cannot have a visit scheduled electronically because their names are not in the system, the attorney said.

“There are many folks who are still not appearing in the system who were arrested last week,” Tovar said Wednesday.

When her organization has been able to schedule consultations, Tovar said some have then been cancelled because the detainees are being transferred to a facility in Texas. When they finally are able to meet with the transferred detainees, Tovar said her team is finding they’ve already signed voluntary departure forms.

Bernwanger, the ACLU lawyer, said she is also aware of the transfers to Texas, but added that moving detainees out of state without notification or a system update has become a common practice for ICE. She said she also has a client who was told “he had no choice” but to sign a departure form after communicating he wanted to fight his case in court.

Though Tovar recommends detainees not sign departure forms before receiving legal counsel, she said it’s “easier said than done.”

Tovar said a detainee in Texas has told the UFW Foundation he would rather “be free in my country and be able to talk to my kids every day.”

DHS: Racial profiling allegations ‘categorically false’

DHS said undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders have received “full due process” and that detainees are provided a list of low-cost and free lawyers. They are also provided phone access to contact their lawyers, DHS said.

The agency added that allegations that its officers are racially profiling people are “disgusting, reckless, and categorically false.”

“What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — not their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” the agency’s statement said.

Tovar said that is not what she has seen in the past week in the Central Valley.

“The people we are encountering are people who have no criminal record — hardworking people, farmworkers on their way to work,” she said.

The reported increase in ICE activity also follows an August decision by a federal appeals court that lifted an injunction on most warrantless immigration arrests in the Central Valley. The injunction came last year, when the ACLU and the United Farm Workers union sued the federal government after U.S. Border Patrol conducted sweeps in Kern County.

“It shouldn’t take a court order to make ICE respect our basic constitutional rights,” Bernwanger said.

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