REEDLEY – The Reedley Police Department is working to dispel misinformation circulated on social media regarding the department’s involvement with immigration enforcement — namely, that the department has anything to do with it.
Police Chief Marc Ediger said any claim that Reedley police officers are working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is false. In fact, city policy — which is based on state law — prohibits the police department from working with any federal agency for the purpose of immigration enforcement.
“Currently for the police department, our policy, we cannot ask in any way, shape or form immigration status of anyone that we come in contact with,” Ediger said. “Nor can we detain, for any length of time, anybody for the sole reason of trying to determine immigration status. We also cannot participate in any (immigration) enforcement action … and we have not up to this point.”
Ediger and City Manager Nicole Zieba addressed the issue at both the Reedley City Council meeting on Jan. 28 and the “After Hours with the City” mixer held in collaboration with the Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 30.
Although there has been immigration enforcement activity in the Central Valley confirmed by ICE, Ediger said he has not received any credible information about that activity specifically coming into Reedley. However, he said he spoke with Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni the morning of Jan. 30 and confirmed that ICE is looking at people in the region who are violent offenders or have currently felony warrants. Ediger said he did know specifically that some of those individuals had been picked up.
“My hope is that federal agencies start to communicate with us, because I’d like to know what to be able to put out to our public when we can,” Ediger said, “but I don’t want it to create a safety issue where they’re in town enforcing something that we are not aware of that creates a safety issue for my officers.”
Ediger said he would continue to work on getting into contact with the local ICE director; however, ICE is not required to notify local law enforcement of their activities.
At each meeting, Ediger acknowledged that people in the community are fearful, as they don’t know what to expect from immigration enforcement activities or from the police department in the city. He reiterated the fact that it is a violation of state law for RPD to participate in any sort of immigration enforcement with federal agencies, and therefore the department does not do so.
Addressing rumors
Zieba said with every report she receives of rumors that RPD has been spotted working with ICE, she has tracked down the specifics of the situation and verified that the rumors are not true.
One example she gave was in regard to a report that Reedley police were working with ICE at Trinity Packing. What actually happened, Zieba explained, was that RPD received a call about a man with a gun, and the caller gave a description of the man and his car. RPD then located and pulled over a driver matching those descriptions to talk to him.
Zieba said RPD talked to this man, did not ask for his immigration status and asked to search his vehicle. They did not locate a gun in the vehicle, and sent the man on his way.
“But that is now circulating as ‘Reedley PD is working with ICE at Trinity,’” Zieba said. “It’s not the case, and we have been tearing our hair out really trying to combat some of these rumors, because the social media rumor mill is awful right now, and within the last two weeks has gotten even worse.”
Residents and business owners who think they see something or have any questions or concerns about these types of situations should contact the city so that Zieba and Ediger can verify the circumstances. This way, the city can put out the correct information so fewer people are susceptible to “the scammers and the fraudsters who are putting these messages out,” Zieba said.
