Culture of fear spreads across Bay Area immigrant communities

By Staff Writers Finn McCarthy, Michael Qin & Aarav Vashisht

A drastic change in the immigration landscape

As the clock struck 2 p.m. on  January 20, Washington High School Junior Maira was one of the nearly 100 students to walk out of class in a national walkout protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Maira, who chose to give only her first name out of safety concerns, didn’t know about the demonstration until just before it occurred — but her empathy for humans pushed her to join. She walked out of class and quickly scribbled on papers to make signs that read, “Abolish ICE” and “ICE needs to melt” for her fellow demonstrators to show the traffic on Fremont Boulevard. “I think what’s been going on is just more than cruel. Families are being separated, people are dying, and with this new kind of policy in place with our current administration, rules aren’t being followed,” she said. “That goes extremely against my principles, and I feel like I had to vocalize that.”

In the last year, the Trump administration has conducted one of the largest deportation campaigns in US history. With a promise to deport 10 million unauthorized immigrants, ICE arrests have doubled, and the number of detained people has skyrocketed. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), by December 2025, more than 600,000 people of all nationalities had been deported, with nearly 70,000 remaining in detention facilities. However, other sources estimated that only between 200,000 and 350,000 immigrants had been deported. Either way, the administration’s crackdown — through an unprecedented level of violence, high numbers of deportees, and harsh visa restrictions — has left immigrant communities across the nation in perpetual fear. 

Although immigration enforcement has been minimal in the Bay Area in comparison to sweeping raids in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Minneapolis, immigrants are watching ICE agents operate with increasing aggression and decreasing scrutiny across the nation. According to the DHS, the federal department in charge of overseeing ICE, more than 70% of current detainees have no criminal record. In addition, ICE has arrested more than 170 US citizens. Fremont immigrants are living under a culture of fear perpetuated by federal policies. “I feel like people are scared for their lives. I have classmates who are scared for their lives,” Maira said.

 

Culture of fear clouds life for Fremont’s immigrants

Latino  Community

For many, the idea of being detained by ICE agents for faithfully going to immigration courts to renew a visa seems outlandish. For one Fremont family, this nightmare has become reality. “Emmanuel,” a Colombian immigrant who lived in Fremont and started a family there, had received a letter in early 2025 to report to the San Francisco immigration court to meet with his lawyer. It was a routine visit, one he usually took with his family. However, Emmanuel decided to go alone this time. Rumors that ICE was cracking down on all immigrants, even legal ones, at immigration offices had begun to circulate, and Emmanuel was afraid of putting his family in an unsafe situation. 

Once Emmanuel arrived at immigration court, he was detained by ICE officers and sent to a detention facility in Arizona. A few months later, he was deported back to Colombia. “[His family] told him, ‘Dad, don’t go. Don’t go.’ And he says, ‘But I have to go,’ ” Lauren Teixeira — a frequent visitor to the Mexican restaurant where Emmanuel’s son worked — said. Teixeira is also the co-leader of Indivisible Fremont, the local chapter of Indivisible, a national grassroots organization. “He [lived] here in Fremont, went up to San Francisco to do what he was supposed to do, and they arrested him. I have so much respect for how strong [the son] is, but it just hurts my heart to see them suffer.”

 Throughout his campaign and into his presidency, President Donald Trump has repeatedly called Latino immigrants drug lords, gang members, murderers, and illegal aliens. “[Mexico is] sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” Trump said during his first campaign launch in 2016 to NPR. As the Trump administration continues to enforce immigration crackdowns, Fremont’s Latino community remains fearful of future immigration enforcement.

Last September, courts granted an emergency request for ICE to arrest anyone based on race, speaking Spanish or in accented English, or location during the ongoing case of Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem — leaving immigrants, even those with legal status, in fear of arrest. While Fremont and the wider Bay Area have seen lower ICE activity compared to cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago, the lingering anxiety persists for immigrants. More than 182,000 people nationwide remain under surveillance by ICE for their immigration status, with the highest concentration  — about 11%  — of those living in San Francisco. 

In the San Francisco “Area of Responsibility,” which also includes Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan, ICE arrested more than 4,000 people between January and October 2025, triple the arrest count of previous years. “For the workers here, many of their families and friends have been affected a lot, and you can see it takes a toll on them,” an anonymous Fremont Mexican restaurant worker said. He asked to remain anonymous out of fear of immigration enforcement. “You can also see they are a bit more nervous when they go out, when they come to work, or when they go places — they just worry.” 

“I taught at a different school that had a lot of students who were undocumented, and [ICE] was a real concern,” MSJ teacher Edward Leu said. Leu said it was common for rumors of immigration raids to spread on social media. “And on those days, you would see the entire population of [undocumented students] afraid to come to school. And these are the kids that need the most support.” 

A 2025 Pew Research poll found that 78% of Hispanics surveyed say Trump’s policies harm them, with 52% of Latinos fearing they or a family member could be deported. The Trump administration also drastically curtailed refugee and asylum programs, including prematurely ending a status extension that protected more than 600,000 Venezuelan asylum-seekers from being deported. This decision placed many at risk for immediate deportation and rescinded their work authorization. 

While many presidents have orchestrated mass deportations to some capacity, the Trump administration has uniquely broadened its targets beyond undocumented immigrants: detaining international students for expressing political beliefs, revoking more than 100,000 visas, and threatening to revoke citizenship for naturalized Somali Americans. 

It’s left many immigrants who followed legal pathways, like Emmanuel, terrified of deportation regardless. “He was a good person, and he was trying to do things the right way, but they just took him,” a Fremont Mexican restaurant worker, who chose to remain anonymous out of safety concerns, said.

Afghan Community 

Fremont is home to one of the largest Afghan diaspora populations, earning the affectionate nickname “Little Kabul.” The first wave of large-scale Afghan immigration to the Bay Area occurred in 1979 following the Soviet invasion. Since then, the refugee population has steadily grown as a result of the  Afghan Civil War and America’s war on terror campaign in Afghanistan. 

The latest and largest influx of Afghans arrived in 2021 when  the Taliban, a terrorist group, took over the Afghan government. In the summer of 2021, nearly 80,000 Afghan refugees arrived in the US under the Biden administration, with about 10,000 settling in California. Like most Afghan immigrants in the Bay Area, they arrived on refugee or asylum status. By 2025, roughly 120,000 more Afghans had arrived in the US under similar circumstances. 

Last spring, Afghan refugees in the Bay Area received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security notifying them they had a week to self-deport or the federal government would “find” them. These refugees came legally on humanitarian parole visas or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), meaning they were granted temporary entrance to the US by the Biden administration after the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the ensuing humanitarian crisis. A few months after the DHS sent the letter, they terminated TPS for Afghanistan, leaving  nearly 12,000 Afghan refugees unprotected from potential deportation. In November, ICE conducted a “Knock and Talk” operation in the Sundale neighborhood of Fremont. According to community organizer Harris Mojadedi in an interview with ABC7, the neighborhood is home to a substantial Afghan population. During the operation, a man of an unidentified race was taken for a period of time before being allowed to return home to his wife and baby. “[The family is] on edge. They’re good people. I hate to see them living like they don’t know if they’re going to be here,” Teixeira, who has been providing support to the family along with Indivisible Fremont, said.

On November 26, 2025, after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members, the Trump administration retaliated by suspending visa issuance for Afghanistan and 18 other countries and halted asylum application decisions for Afghans.“Especially after the shooter in DC was identified as an [Afghan] immigrant, everyone here was terrified. There’s going to be a backlash, that person killed a National Guard [member],” Indivisible Fremont volunteer Evonne Leeper said. Since the shooting in DC, ICE has detained more than a dozen Afghans from the Bay Area, according to ABC7.  “Everyone was really, really on edge — we’re still on edge.”

Like Emmanuel and other Latino immigrants, fear of immigration enforcement continues to linger in much of the Afghan community, despite arriving through legal pathways. They were granted entry by the US government, only for that allowance to be rescinded less than five years later based on actions unrelated to them. This sudden change in attitude is jarring, and leaves Afghan refugees scrambling to find solutions. “There might be immigrants who are criminals, but there are a lot of people who are [just] criminals. You can’t just grab everyone and assume they are a criminal just because they are an immigrant,” the anonymous Mexican restaurant worker said.

 

The Trump administration’s federal pushback on H-1B visas

Last September, the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 fee on the new H-1B visa — a temporary work visa that allows highly skilled immigrants to work in specialty occupations like technology and healthcare. The Bay Area makes up approximately 80% of CA visa holders with Indian workers making up 70% of H-1B recipients, according to the DHS. Fremont, home to an ethnically diverse South Asian population, is one of many communities facing the rising unpredictability of the effects of recent proposed legislation. “Around me in my community, I’ve seen many families, including families of my very close friends, having to lose out on opportunities to go places they may want to go to because their parents are afraid that their H-1B visas may be [revoked], or [that] they may be caught and deported by ICE,” MSJ Sophomore Ananya Rawlani said.

Employers now have to pay a fee 20 times higher than the previous one when recruiting employees. The administration’s overhaul of the H-1B visa program could potentially lower Silicon Valley’s advantage in attracting high-skilled foreign workers, particularly for local technology companies. 

Silicon Valley has historically been renowned as the global hub of technology, hosting approximately 22% of the nation’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups. Two-thirds of leading AI startups were founded or co-founded by immigrants. But as  AI startups that hire foreign workers are saddled with a $100,000 filing fee, economic and immigration experts warn about the potential consequences for AI innovation. The new fee will “hurt the innovation and competitiveness of the U.S. industry … [because] a lot of the innovation and R&D work being done in the U.S. involves people on H-1B visas,” Subodha Kumar, a professor at the Fox School of Business at Temple University said. According to data released by the Institute for Progress, 60% of the top US-AI-based startups had immigrant founders. Startups are now at a severe disadvantage compared to large technology companies that can overcome these fees for higher-skilled foreign workers.

The impact of the H-1B visa extends beyond AI startups. The H-1B program has paved the way for Silicon Valley’s most successful CEOsS, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Google’s Sundar Pichai. Companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google have approved the most H-1B visas in fiscal year 2025, issuing more than 28,000 visas annually. Although these major companies can sustain the new fee, according to a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research, previous H-1B restrictions have encouraged major American technology companies to offshore jobs to accessible regions, causing the US to lose out on certain jobs. 

 

How has Fremont and the wider Bay Area responded

Despite the growing fear and unease of deportations, Alameda County is currently looking for possible solutions to better support its immigrant residents. As an increasing number of cities in the East Bay continue to proclaim themselves as sanctuary ICE-free cities, Alameda County is currently in the midst of weighing new measures that are directly aimed at limiting ICE operations by considering ICE-free zones. If approved, these ordinances would bar immigration enforcement operations from taking place on city property, allowing citizens to roam freely in public spaces without fear of detainment. ICE officers are now prohibited by state law from entering K-12 schools and child care facilities without a valid judicial warrant or court order.

It can take years of unrest to cause a revolution — and sometimes it takes five seconds, three bullets, and one innocent woman. On January 6, 2,000 federal agents and officers arrived in Minneapolis for a crackdown on alleged fraud committed by Somali residents. The next day, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Good’s vehicle was stalled perpendicular to the road, preventing cars from easily leaving. ICE agents had surrounded Good’s vehicle and told her to get out of the car. Good had turned her steering wheel slightly, and Ross, who was standing near the front of the car, shot her. Good died on the scene, despite medical personnel witnessing the shooting.

The shooting was filmed from multiple perspectives, including by Ross himself, and spread like wildfire on social media. Immediately after the events were publicized, activist organizations and ordinary people alike came together to protest by marching in front of ICE agencies and city halls.

On the night of January 11, with solemn faces and homemade signs, Fremont citizens gathered in the park next to the Fremont Hall of Justice to hold a vigil for Good and the other victims of ICE brutality. Protestors lined the sidewalks of the Walnut and Paseo Padre intersection, holding signs depicting the text “ICE out of our cities 4 good” and “No Kings.” Organized by Fremont’s chapter of Indivisible, speakers of the section and the Tri-City Interfaith Council shared poems, songs, and messages of hope. “We held the vigil with the idea that it’s also about ICE in general, how it’s killing us — all of us,” Teixeira said.

The day after Good’s death, Pleasanton residents gathered at Delucchi Park, holding a candlelight vigil for Good and other unarmed civilian victims of ICE. Despite Minneapolis being nearly 2,000 miles away, people across the nation gathered to mourn Good’s death.. “This did not look like somebody that was trying to kill the officers, it looked like someone who was afraid,” Livermore resident Patty said to NBC Bay Area. 

At another protest outside the Palo Alto Tesla showroom, around 100 protestors, consisting of both regular citizens and activist organizations, stood or sat on the sidewalk to voice their discontent. Longtime protestor and retired Superior Court of California Judge LaDoris Cordell stood with a megaphone, expressing her grievances. “We’re protesting about the threat to democracy that the Trump administration is posing to all of us,” Cordell said. “No one is above the law, but the administration is sending a message that they believe they are, including the federal officers in law enforcement.”

“I feel like nothing I could do could amount to the extensive amount of respect that immigrants deserve, especially in the Bay Area […]  The reason the Bay Area is known is for our diversity, for what immigrants bring to the Bay Area,” Maira said. “I think everyone needs to remember that we all need to love each other.” As a high schooler, Maira believes that silent activism is extremely beneficial to supporting immigrants. To her, letting neighbors know of ICE activity or helping with groceries is what brings the community together and strengthens bonds. In times of mass fear and anxiety, unity, Maira says, can help ease those feelings.

However, advocates like Indivisible Fremont still feel the mounting pressure of immigration building in their communities are stepping up to provide mutual aid to their neighbors and drive advocacy. Indivisible Fremont was founded in April 2025, so they were thrown into helping immigrants in the midst of many immigration enforcement changes. They responded quickly by undergoing ICE response training, which they utilized during ICE’s operation in Fremont, as well as at local Home Depots. As an organization dedicated to advocating for democracy and justice, Indivisible Fremont recognizes that community is what makes everything happen. “I feel like we have a responsibility in our own way to be there for young people and to let them know, ‘This is what you can do,’” Teixeira said. 

Indivisible Fremont also works closely with other advocacy groups, such as the Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which both aim to improve justice for immigrants through ICE response training. Indivisible Fremont launched a monarch campaign, in which businesses supportive of immigrants post flyers of monarch butterflies in their windows. This monarch butterfly is a signal that immigrants are safe with that business, and recognize what immigrants are currently facing. Researching different ways to help those in the surrounding community, either through protesting in the streets or offering a shoulder to lean on, is what can begin to heal the scars left on the immigrant community. “Stand up for what you believe in, whether it’s quietly or loudly,” Maira said.