A small office building in San Francisco’s South of Market became the scene early Saturday of a hastily organized protest against the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation policies as activists scrambled to block the federal government from detaining more immigrants.
About 200 protesters began marching outside 478 Tehama St. at 7 a.m. after immigrants received texts Friday ordering them to check in with officials this weekend.
Activists had anticipated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has an office at the address, would try to detain immigrants who showed up. As many as 25 immigrants including families arrived by about 11 a.m., but the office appeared closed and no one had entered or left. Instead, activists met with the immigrants outside and connected them with lawyers.
The action came ahead of the No Kings Day march and rally in San Francisco and nationwide amid a push by President Donald Trump to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally and a growing and sometimes unruly opposition movement.
Many of the protesters had departed by 11 a.m., but organizers said they would stay because the ICE text messages had told immigrants to come during business hours Saturday or Sunday.
[Mission Action immigrant advocacy group organizer Sanika] Mahajan said the immigrants face a predicament. If they don’t show up to check in with immigration officials, they could face deportation for not following necessary steps in their cases. If they do show up, they could be detained and deported by ICE, she said.
Several immigrants who arrived Saturday morning said they are part of an ICE program that allows them to live at home as their cases are processed. ICE says about 7.6 million immigrants are in the program, known as Alternatives to Detention or the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, as of October.
According to news reports, ICE has been using text messages to alert participants in the program that they must come to an agency location. The practice has picked up in recent weeks as the administration pushed to increase arrests and deportations. The actions have spread fear and apprehension throughout immigrant communities.