Fresno City Council candidate Rob Fuentes defends position on ICE, says he was pushed out of job

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno City Council candidate Rob Fuentes is facing scrutiny over his positions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both in his political campaign and his professional roles.

Fuentes, who is running for the District 1 seat on the Fresno City Council, came under criticism after it became public that he had been assigned to defend ICE in several cases while campaigning on the position that the agency should be abolished.

Fuentes has said that while he did his job and filed motions in those cases, he never argued any of those cases in court.

Fuentes resigned from his job as an assistant U.S. attorney after his criticism of ICE became public. He now says he was pushed out by the Trump administration.

In a statement to Action News, Fuentes said, "I was placed on admin leave one day after my criticisms of ICE were made public, with the expectation that I'd be fired. I saved them the trouble and resigned."

At the same time, he is facing growing calls from some members of the public to resign as president of the State Center Community College District Board of Trustees because of his role in cases involving the defense of ICE.

Fuentes said he plans to remain in that role and also addressed his campaign and priorities moving forward.

"I'm ready to roll up my sleeves to fight to lower the cost of living and build safer, stronger, healthier neighborhoods for our District 1 community," he said.