Protesters rush to avert deportations after ICE tells immigrants to come to S.F. office
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.
A resident of Richmond in the East Bay who came with her husband, son and daughter to the San Francisco building just after 8:30 a.m. said she received a text message from ICE on Friday telling her to come to the office. It frightened her, but she felt she should go.
'I thought it was really weird because they work Monday through Friday,' the woman said in Spanish. She texted back asking about that, and who was texting her, but did not get a response.
The woman said she and her husband, 18-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter have been in the United States for 2½ years, regularly meeting with immigration authorities, attending video sessions and sending photos.
The building, on a SoMa side street, houses the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which is run by ICE, according to Sanika Mahajan, an organizer with immigrant advocacy group Mission Action. The location has seen fewer detentions — and protests — in the past couple weeks than has the ICE building on Sansome Street or the San Francisco Immigration Court on Montgomery Street.
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.
ICE officials did not immediately respond to Chronicle requests for comment Saturday.
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.
'ATD-ISAP enables aliens to remain in their communities — contributing to their families and community organizations and, as appropriate, concluding their affairs in the U.S. — as they move through immigration proceedings or prepare for departure,' the agency says on its website.
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.
Nancy Hormachea of National Lawyers Guild, who was at the ICE office Saturday morning, said those getting messages to appear there seem to be part of the ADT program.
'The only thing we know about the people that are told to show up today are people who have already been processed by immigration because they entered the country without papers. And they are not people who have criminal history,' she said. 'And now they've decided that all those programs were unlawful and the new laws on expedited removal are in place.'
Immigrants were comparing paperwork and communication from ICE in an attempt to understand what was going on. Many took photos of themselves in front of the building, presumably to prove they were there if needed.
A Nicaraguan who came to the building with her 5-year-old daughter said she was notified late Friday that she had to check with immigration officials between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday or Sunday, though she was next scheduled for an appointment Wednesday.
The Richmond woman who came with her family said she was relieved to see the protesters there Saturday and to receive support and assistance.
'On one side, I felt emotional to see all the support for us immigrants — but also scared about what's going to happen,' she said.
'I have a lot of questions without answers,' she said. 'Thanks to God that there are people there supporting us. I believe a lot in God.'
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