On August 15, dozens of local and regional activists gathered in McFarland to protest the recent opening of two of California’s newest ICE detention centers. The two facilities, Central Valley Annex in McFarland owned by GEO Group and the other in California City operated by Core Civic, opened within about a year of one another at former state prison sites.
The event was organized by a recently formed coalition called No Concentration Camps in California. The coalition includes the groups Raza Against War (RAW), Fresno Resistance, 50501 Bakersfield, 50501 Modesto, Golden Peach Resistance, Community Resistance Network of the Central Valley and the Stanislaus Visibility Brigade.
“Raza Against War stands against any war created by the imperialist fascist USA,” wrote RAW founding member Gloria Hernandez in a written statement to the Community Alliance. “This includes war against immigrants, refugees and political prisoners.
“It’s unfortunate that the city of McFarland agreed to allow this to happen next to schools and public parks where the general public witnesses the cruel and inhumane suffering of human beings in the land of the free. We traveled yesterday to McFarland to support the call to shut down the detention/concentration camps.”
Some object to calling ICE Detention Centers “concentration camps.” Webster’s Dictionary and Wikipedia both define the term as a facility where a government or military detains large numbers of civilians without trial or formal criminal charges.
Confinement is based on executive decree or identity such as political affiliation, ethnicity, race or religion, rather than due process, and typically involves harsh conditions under armed guard.
When asked why the group is calling the detention centers concentration camps, Kim Arkin, an organizer with the coalition said, “they meet the definition.”
“We don’t want any more camps in our state and everybody’s doing everything they can to raise awareness about the existence of this camp,” she said.
The Central Valley Takes Action
In a social media post, Fresno Resistance said, “we cannot wait for ICE to show up at our doorsteps. We must take the fight to theirs. The GEO Group runs this for profit detention facility in our own backyard profiting off the incarceration of our undocumented neighbors and community members.”
“This is horrific. The facility’s location is near schools in a predominantly Hispanic community. Imagine your children walking to school and around the corner is an ICE detention center,” Bella, a young woman from Reedley shared.
“I’m second generation but I see people from our community working there, you know, the oppressed becoming the oppressors by working at these facilities.”
Another young woman named Cal drove 2 and a half hours to join the protest. “I’m here today because I love my community and hate that they’re tearing us apart. We care about our community and will not let people be kidnapped,” she said.
Frog came as a part of a caravan from the northern Central Valley where there is another facility in Stockton. “They send a lot of folks from there down here or to California City. In the past few years we’ve seen over 2,000 of our neighbors rounded up.
“They [ICE] have shown repeatedly they are cruel and violent, and that’s in broad daylight in front of our faces. So, what are they doing behind closed doors?”
Big Profits, Legal Complaints
The two Kern County facilities can house 1,400 immigrants bringing the total capacity to 8,169 beds in California. There are currently 5,300 to 6,000 detainees in ICE custody in California. This number is projected to increase with the opening of new facilities.
Advocates say when a new facility is opened, ICE is planning for more detentions in California. Nationwide there are 65,000 immigrants in ICE custody.
The GEO Group, who runs two facilities in McFarland, is a for profit, publicly traded corporation. For the second quarter of 2026, the corporation reported revenues of $732.1 million and a profit per share above analyst estimates.
There are widespread legal complaints about GEO Group facilities. Federal lawsuits and human rights investigations have been launched regarding conditions inside its centers. Major allegations center on forced labor schemes, severe health and safety violations and systematic resistance to state oversight.
According to reports by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights, at least 52 people have died in U.S. ICE custody since President Donald Trump took office for his second term on January 20, 2025 through early June 2026. Additional reports indicate that the total number has continued to climb past these numbers through the summer of 2026.
Changing Tactics, More Arrests
Compared to the open battle the agency engaged in last year, ICE now appears to be attempting to maintain a lower profile. The agency has arrested and detained more people in recent months than at any time since Trump returned to office.
Recent data released by ICE shows that in June, it hit a high—1,300 arrests on average each day. That record was then topped in July, which saw 1,474 average daily arrests over just the first 11 days of the month. “This reverses a trend we saw since the early fall where overall arrest numbers had actually remained fairly consistent or declined,” observed Austin Kocher, assistant research professor at Syracuse University.
“The purported shift in ICE tactics—from the manic Kristi Noem months that cost the lives of two U.S. citizens to the less spectacular tactics under Markwayne Mullin—has effectively led to more arrests without as much popular backlash.”
Locally in the six county Central Valley region ICE has arrested 2,586 people since Trump took office according to a Fresno Bee report. The Sacramento Bee reports, in an analysis of public data, that 74% of people arrested and held in ICE facilities have no criminal record.
Who is Being Detained?
Official ethnic or demographic breakdown percentages for ICE detainees specifically housed in California’s Central Valley facilities are not comprehensively detailed in published public databases. However, state and regional reports indicate that detainees across California facilities primarily originate from Mexico, India, Guatemala, El Salvador, China, Russia, Cuba and Honduras.
ICE activity has increased across California’s Central Valley and Sacramento regions under the second Trump administration. Advocacy groups and recent reporting highlight that immigration enforcement has sharply accelerated, heavily impacting the Central Valley’s Punjabi Sikh population—the largest in the nation.
The primary trends, operations and community impacts defining ICE activity include, increasing arrests and increased targeted operations, resulting in the doubling of local arrests. Arrests often occur when people appear for their immigration hearings.
The Work is Not Done
Arkin shared the coalition’s near future calls to action. “We are organizing pilgrimages in October and we are urging the public to ask their legislators to support California Senate Bill 1399 which calls for continued inspection of these camps.”
“I urge people of faith to truly question where their faith is guiding them, where we are coming from spiritually,” said Reverend Kim Williams of the Grace Community Church of North Fork. “Our faith guides us to align ourselves with whoever everybody else is hating and trying to get rid of. So, it’s important to show up and promote love and care and justice.”
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Golden State Annex was the name of one of the two recently opened facilities. Golden State Annex is an existing immigration detention center in Kern County that opened in 2020 and is one of two in McFarland both owned by GEO Group.
