San Francisco Protestors Slam Mayor for Tepid Response to ICE Raids

SAN FRANCISCO—Weekly protests outside the immigration court in downtown San Francisco are picking up steam. The protests come as pressure builds on San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie to take a more forceful stand against federal immigration raids in the city.

At the center of the debate is a dispute over the role of the SFPD in policing protests while protecting federal immigration agents in a city that celebrates its sanctuary status.

Around 60 protesters staked out on the sidewalk all day Tuesday, most wearing keffiyehs—the black and white cloth typically associated with the movement for Palestine—and handing out pamphlets detailing immigrants’ rights and resources. Several stood watch outside the loading bay around the side of the building on Sutter Street.

The group is a decentralized coalition of individual activists, but larger organizations like Food Not Bombs SF, Mission Defense, and Democratic Socialists of America promoted the action. 

Their intention is to resist any federal immigration agents coming to arrest immigrants at their court hearings. It follows a confrontation on July 8th at the same spot, where a small group of protestors resisted ICE agents as they attempted to arrest a young immigrant man. ICE agents drove an SUV into the crowd, injuring one woman thrown from the hood, narrowly avoiding running her over. 

One protestor who goes by Cebollin and who identified himself as a spokesperson for the group decried the ICE raids targeting immigrants who are actively abiding by legal requirements to appear at court.

“They are doing everything right to have a pathway to citizenship, that’s why it’s frustrating and scary that ICE is coming here and abducting them outside the courthouse,” said Cebollin. “It shows how cowardly ICE is.” 

ICE has been routinely arresting asylum seekers following their immigration hearings. The anti-ICE protesters, who had been demonstrating outside the immigration court every Tuesday for several weeks now, numbered about 20 that day. This week, the group on the corner of Montgomery and Sutter streets tripled in size. 

Many there said they came directly in response to the recent violent clashes. 

Cebollin said the group is disappointed in city leadership for their reaction to last week’s ICE confrontation, especially Mayor Lurie.

“Shouldn’t SFPD be protecting us? Shouldn’t they be protecting the immigrants being abducted? It’s humiliating to see Daniel Lurie, or the city government as a whole not have a solid position on ICE or really talking about it.”

The mayor has been criticized for his overall response to ICE raids in San Francisco – specifically for having no response or statement at all, in contrast to Los Angeles, where LAPD issued public guidelines on how it planned to engage with ICE agents and where LA Mayor Karen Bass publicly confronted agents during recent raids in the city.

On July 9th, two days after the woman was flung from the ICE SUV, Lurie posted a video to Instagram promoting a new Popmart store in Union Square, the retailer of trendy Labubu dolls. The timing of the announcement was panned, with nearly every comment under the post questioning Lurie over the ICE raids. 

Speaking on KRON4 News on the same day, Lurie said he is increasing funding to immigrant legal defense support in his new budget bill and connecting to community organizations. 

“The immigrant community has an ally in me,” he said. 

The SF Board of Supervisors on July 16 approved Lurie’s $15.9 billion budget which includes a 3% boost to SFPD even as it makes steep cuts to a range of community services as the city grapples with a $782 million deficit.

District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder was the only “no” vote on the budget, calling parts of it “indefensible.”

“In a moment when Trump is pledging mass deportations, this city has chosen to flatline legal defense funding. Staff are already being laid off. Families are already being left defenseless,” she said before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday prior to the vote.

Nearby San Mateo and Santa Clara counties have increased legal defense funding to $5 million, she noted.

On July 14th, Fielder sent a letter to Interim Police Chief Paul Yep, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, Mayor Daniel Lurie and Controller Greg Wagner, demanding answers about the handling of recent anti-ICE protests and SFPD collaboration in violation of sanctuary laws. As of the 17th, they have not provided a response. 

That follows criticism by Anti-ICE demonstrators and city residents over SFPD’s lack of intervention on the public’s behalf. Witnesses shared that SFPD openly assisted ICE in pushing people aside during the SUV ramming incident.

A recent report by the SF Standard revealed that both SFPD and Oakland Police also appear to have repeatedly broken state law by handing over data from automated license plate readers to federal law enforcement. 

Speaking at a town hall meeting on July 10th, SFPD Deputy Chief Derrick Lew told attendees that the police department needs to be “peacekeepers” between ICE and protestors, seemingly equating the threat posed to each other. 

Lew said they do not want residents to have force used against them but, “on the other side of the coin … we can’t just sit by and watch our fellow law enforcement agent or officer get hurt.”

Under San Francisco’s 1989 sanctuary ordinance, all city employees, including police officers, are prohibited from assisting ICE. The police department’s policies specifically prohibit officers supporting “routine ICE/CBP operations, investigations, or raids.” They can only respond when it “appears reasonably necessary to prevent serious injury to persons, whether or not a criminal offense is involved.” 

No confrontations took place this Tuesday, with neither ICE nor SFPD making a presence, but the protestors said they are prepared to block agents again.

ACoM reached out to both ICE and Mayor Lurie’s office for comment. Neither replied before publishing time.

This story has been updated with comments from Supervisor Jackie Fielder’s office.

Chris Alam is a California Local News Fellow with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.