On May 1, hundreds of community members rallied at Fresno City Hall before marching to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in solidarity with workers and immigrants.
“I stand here today on May Day, the day that honors workers and [their] struggles,” said Emma Gutierrez, a Fresno Unified student, to an energetic crowd.
“This year, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the May First Coalition. I am proud to have grown up with this movement, and I plan to continue with my siblings and friends.”
The sacrifices faced by immigrant workers, in particular, are immense. Every day, they suffer arrest, deportations and even death.
“In the United States, the immigrant community is fighting for justice for the whole family,” said Leonel Flores, co-founder of the May First Coalition and an organizer of the event.
“But the most important thing is immigration reform, to provide legal status for our community and a pathway to citizenship.”
President Trump has implemented immigration policy changes focused on increasing interior enforcement efforts to support mass deportation, which had increased the number of immigrants detained by ICE to more than 68,000 as of Feb. 7, an increase of more than 70% from the 39,000 immigrants held in detention at the end of the Biden administration.
Now, ICE has again expanded in the Central Valley, activating a new 700-bed detention facility in McFarland operated by the for-profit prison company Geo Group. The agency began transferring immigrant detainees to the facility last week.
Alfred Aldrete of Fresno Resistance addressed this point, noting that “it’s important we connect the dots. These workers that are targeted by ICE are sent to these facilities that are owned by billionaires.
“They profit from the suffering of our brothers and sisters of our mothers and fathers. They profit off all the workers of the Central Valley that make Fresno great.”
The new facility, called Central Valley Annex, brings the number of active detention centers in California to eight, up from six at the beginning of 2025. The latest figures show an average of 5,337 people being held in California, up 72% from April 2025. The facilities are operated by private companies Geo Group and Core Civic and have a total capacity of nearly 10,000 beds.
These two for-profit prison operators are running inhumane and dangerous camps. People are dying from inadequate medical care, substandard facility conditions and, in some cases, violence or neglect. The ACLU has stated that 95% of the deaths were avoidable with adequate medical care.
Dr. Floyd Harris of Free AME Ministries spoke in solidarity with immigrants and exhorted the crowd to take action. He addressed the recent Supreme Court decision that decimated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, making it difficult, if not impossible, to use race-conscious map drawing for the creation of Congressional districts to ensure minority representation.
“Just yesterday, our crackerjack Supreme Court decided to mess with the 1965 Civil Rights Act,” Harris said, “and they have the audacity to take us back 60 years.
“Now, we have to stand up and let this country know we’re not slaves anymore, we’re not doormats anymore and there’s no such thing called illegal immigrants. Nobody is an illegal alien here.
“This is our country, our town and we will stand up and fight back.”
The Central Valley continues to support immigrant rights and will continue to expose the crimes against immigrants in prison and in the communities of California for generations to come.
“Even as a young person I know what matters,” says Gutierrez. “We care about our family, our future and our environment.
“We are not just the future, we are the present, and we will be heard.”
Alert
Report any ICE activity or any threatening actions toward immigrants or minorities to the Valley Watch Network Hotline at 559-206-0151
An excerpt from My Freedom written and recited by Fresno Poet Laureate Aideed Medina at May Day:
My freedom does not want to devour yours, it does not seek out your land or labor to make itself rich,
my freedom does not want to separate you from your loved ones, does not carry the stench of slave quarters, of reservations, of chain gangs, of concentration camps, or guest worker permits
my liberty does not want to forget your ancestors or where you come from, where you were lifted, from where you were taken from
my freedom, my freedom does not want to perpetrate acts of violence, does not shoot you in the forehead at the gate, and does not demand your subjugation
there is no kneeling in my freedom, my freedom is spacious and nurturing, it wants to feed you, it has fed you, it keeps you satiated, no thirst to be found because my freedom is your freedom, your freedom is ours.
Origins of May Day
May Day, a longstanding tradition in the United States, honors and celebrates workers and their struggles. On May 1, 1886, tens of thousands of Chicago workers went on strike to demand an eight-hour work day. Three days later, an unidentified person set off a bomb in Haymarket Square. The labor and immigrant community came under suspicion and suppression.
Eight of the organizers, all recent immigrants and most of whom were not present at the time of the bombing, were arrested, tried and convicted. Seven were sentenced to death. Four were executed. Another died by suicide the night before he was set to face the noose.
As he was led to his death, one of the organizers, August Spies, proclaimed that “the time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!”
In the years that followed, workers deployed that silence, withholding their labor through militant strike actions across the country and around the world, winning eight-hour work days in industry after industry, until it was finally codified into law.
May Day honors and celebrates working-class history and organizing. It celebrates all workers today, especially immigrant workers—the backbone of California’s economy.
