The town of McFarland sits in the Central Valley of California, and agricultural hamlet of some 15,000 where as many as half are both undocumented and long-time residents. This town, undocumented and citizens alike, just came together to reject the takeover of two state prisons by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Maribel Ramirez, an undocumented vineyard worker who has lived in McFarland for 20 years with her husband and family, helped lead the fight when a private prison corporation wanted to contract its facilities, which were just outlawed by California, to ICE for immigrant detention.
“We have lived here in peace. We built our lives in McFarland, working to support our family without any fear,” she told The New York Times. An ICE detention facility would have ended that, and she was prepared to move north to Oregon or Washington if the city's planning commission approved the contract. That didn't happen, thanks to her and her community joining together to amass what the Times reports as "overwhelming public sentiment" against it.
Losing the private prisons is an economic blow to the town, Mayor Manuel Cantu said. "Without GEO [the private prison corporation], we can't guarantee we can pay for law enforcement, fire or any other services." But if ICE had contracted with GEO, the town could have lost upwards of half its population, fleeing the threat of ICE.
More than 1,000 city residents including undocumented people signed cards that a grassroots group, which included Ramirez, organized to voice its opposition to ICE. They showed up at Tuesday's commission meeting where Estevan Davalos, a long-term and undocumented resident of McFarland, testified: "You can find other options, but don’t bring ICE. In the long term, the McFarland community will suffer." It's a testament to the community that's been built there that so many undocumented people who've lived there so long were willing to publicly speak out for their town and their own safety. "Those two prisons three minutes from my house, they never bothered me," Ramirez said. "An ICE detention center, that would bring fear to our community. We might have to leave."
They were joined by Faith in the Valley, a local nonprofit, and community leaders like Antero Sanchez, the priest at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church. "For an immigrant community such as McFarland, this troubling contract would mean constant fear of ICE presence in the area," he wrote to the planning commission. As many as 300 people showed up at Tuesday's planning commission hearing to protest outside, chanting "No ICE! No GEO! We're farmworkers, not delinquents" in Spanish. GEO and ICE said the facilities would be intended for adults who were apprehended crossing the border and for criminal detainees from around the country, but that promise rung hollow for a community that has watched the Trump administration in action.
Mayor Cantu resigned his position on Wednesday after the planning commission's decision. The company could appeal to the City Council, but residents will continue the fight.