kvpr.news For many in Fresno, recent ICE raids have gotten in the way of their worship routines, and their way of life. The Darbar Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji temple in southeast Fresno remains open 24 hours a day. These temples, also known as Gurdwaras, are where people of the Sikh faith congregate – but less so in recent weeks. "It just sucks," said Paramjot Singh, a 21-year-old volunteer at the temple. He manages the temple’s livestreams on YouTube. "Super devoted people. You see them and you want to be like them, but when you see that they're not coming anymore because of [the] stuff that's going on, it makes you . . . wish that they were here,” Singh said. In southeast Fresno, at St. Anthony Mary Claret Church, a Catholic parish, the number of people attending mass has also dropped. Father José Sánchez, the church’s pastor, said that up to 5,000 people attend the church across all the Sunday masses. But he estimates that there have been at least 500 fewer people in recent weeks. Weekend donations have fallen by approximately 10 to 15%, he said. Religious education classes for youth were also canceled because parents were afraid to drop off their kids. "We know they have a reason to be afraid and to want to avoid going out to public places. We try to work with them as much as possible to help them," Sanchez said. The bishop of the Diocese of Fresno, Joseph Brennan, issued a pastoral letter to the roughly one million Catholics in the Diocese in mid October telling them the Diocese would not be silent about the anxiety and fear of its parishioners. Brennan said he was opposed to "indiscriminate mass deportation of people.” “Even if you have not been personally affected by the increased immigration enforcement in our region, many of those who sit alongside you in the pews have been affected, with some already having been detained,” Brennan said. 📲Read more about the how business and houses of worship are feeling the impact of immigration enforcement in Fresno at KVPR.org Reporting by Israel Cardona Hernandez/KVPR https://www.kvpr.org/community/2026-10-30/we-really-miss-them-as-ice-agents-patrol-fresno-streets-business-and-worship-is-down View all 24 comments