In California’s Central Valley, Some surprising voters are backing a progressive upstart: a law enforcement official calling for the abolition of ICE. Millennials who once voted for Republican members of Congress.
They found themselves among the supporters of Randy Villegas, a Democrat seeking to unseat longtime Republican Rep. David Valadao in a conservative-dominated district in California’s Central Valley.
California’s 22nd Congressional District is a historically red stronghold where progressive policies may find a new foothold as Democrats gain ground across the country.
Villegas’ path to the general election mirrors that of other progressive candidates carving out new identities within the party. The 31-year-old president defeated a moderate Democratic state lawmaker backed by the party’s establishment in a June primary by pursuing policies including Medicare for All, addressing affordability issues, rejecting corporate donations and halting weapons supplies to Israel.
Villegas opposes ICE in a district that is 70 percent majority Latino or Hispanic, a stark contrast to Valada. Valada has defended the Trump administration’s anti-immigration campaign and famously said “that’s what it is” when asked about it on the debate stage last month. Valada claimed that “many” people captured by ICE in the Central Valley in recent weeks have criminal records, even though studies show that most of those detained by ICE do not have criminal convictions.
Central Valley voters who spoke to The Intercept were most excited about Valada’s stance on immigration.
“I’ve never seen him stand up to something that I thought was shocking,” said Raul Castro, 53, a Fresno County probation officer who has expressed frustration with Varadao’s lack of willingness to stand up to Trump during ICE raids in the area in recent weeks. “I just don’t respect people like that.”
Standing on the front porch of his house in a middle-class suburb northwest of Fresno, Castro lamented that ICE targets immigrants based on their appearance, language or job. He has spoken out against immigration officials pulling people off the streets into a maze of detention centers that civil rights advocates report lack basic necessities like clean water and adequate health care. Although Castro once supported ICE, when asked if he supported abolishing the agency entirely, he said yes.
“If you asked me the same question, ‘Hey, would you abolish ICE?’ I would say, ‘No, because they are taking steps to keep our country safe. I want to live in a safe Fresno, a safe county, a safe city,'” Castro told The Intercept. “But now, wait, maybe it’s not what I thought it was.”
Villegas told The Intercept that he wasn’t surprised to hear he was winning support from anti-ICE law enforcement officials.
“I’m not surprised because I think ICE makes local law enforcement’s job more difficult, and everyone sees the indiscriminate profiling,” Villegas said at a rally in a Fresno park in support of the last-minute canvassing efforts.
Villegas himself does not support abolishing ICE, but instead calls for broad reforms to the agency. The policy stance makes Villegas something of an outlier among his fellow progressives, who are riding a wave of left-wing energy into Congress, some of whom ran on a platform that included “abolition of ICE.”
At the same time, it received important support from the high-profile democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Villegas has also rejected the socialist label, preferring “populism,” despite attempts by the Republican National Party to weaponize the term against him. Unlike many progressives, Villegas is also one of the few running in a historically red district. He believed voters would not get bogged down in ideological nuances but would want to eliminate them.
“People are tired of an unaccountable agency, people are tired of an unaccountable congressman who doesn’t even have a public town hall,” Villegas said. “We deserve better than the Central Valley and I think that’s why our message resonates across the political spectrum.”
That influence across the political spectrum is also evidenced by voters like Aram Easter, 33, who was born and raised in Fresno. He doesn’t vote in every election, but voted for Valada a decade ago when his district formerly covered Fresno, in large part because he embraced the vision of local Central Valley people (Vallada was born and raised in nearby Hanford). He also agrees with some aspects of Trump’s agenda, such as building a border wall. But he drew a line at immigration enforcement.
“You let people tear people’s families apart,” Easter said. “My family immigrated here — I have black and Mexican family — and I don’t agree with them being too aggressive in doing this.”
ICE raids have become more common in the area since early October, with authorities detaining more than 200 people throughout the raids, according to local news agency Fresnoland. Similar rising trends in ICE have recently been seen across the state, including in Los Angeles and San Diego. Voter rights groups in the Central Valley have taken notice and view the raids as an effort by the Trump administration to suppress the vote, especially in a key race in the 22nd District.
“The timing of ICE’s rise is no coincidence,” said Marisa Moraza, political director of PowerCA Action, which is conducting independent spending efforts to support Villegas’ campaign. “This is no coincidence, this all started in early October when voters received their mail-in ballots.”
Morassa said the raids also suppressed efforts to get out the vote. Last month, a surge in ICE activity forced the group to suspend in-person lobbying for several days, opting instead for phone banking.
Cirilo Ordaz, a lobbyist for PowerCA who supports Villegas, said ICE’s activities also deter would-be voters from casting their ballots as recent arrests of U.S. citizens stoke fear among voters.
“I think a lot of them haven’t gone out to vote because of this fear,” said Ordaz, one of dozens of Villegas supporters who fanned out across the area on the Monday before Election Day to urge residents to vote.
Sylvia Ramirez, another Fresno native who also canvasses at PowerCA, said she has noticed fewer people outside in recent weeks, including at the Big Fresno Fair, a popular annual event. For voters, she and her team are willing to cast their ballots if fear keeps them inside.
“Providing someone with voting services really helps eliminate people’s fear of leaving their home,” she said, adding that in recent days she has told family members to stay home as much as possible to avoid interacting with ICE.
The Central Valley, known for its important agricultural production, has been home to high-profile Republican lawmakers such as former Rep. Devin Nunes and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
But last year, in response to partisan redistricting efforts in Texas, the state conducted Democratic-led redistricting that now includes the heavily Democratic northwest side of Fresno.
Early voting across the state is outpacing recent midterm elections, according to a recent survey. It’s unclear how much of that is anti-Trump animus or how much of the candidate voters are happy to support.
Castro, a probation officer, was among those who voted early. In recent weeks, he said, he’s been in uniform in areas where ICE has conducted previous raids and noticed residents looking at him with concern. He understands this fear very well. As a child, he lived in a labor camp with his parents, undocumented immigrants who worked as farm workers in Fresno. He recalled similar indiscriminate sweeps by the Border Patrol in the 1970s.
“When I was little, it was the Border Patrol, and they used to show up in trucks,” Castro recalled. “All the agents would go out and chase these people. They would often round them up and take them out,” he said.
Seeing the video and hearing about recent ICE raids targeting farmworkers in the area brought back such painful memories.
“I never thought I would see this again,” he said.