Latest news with #MissionAction
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
No Kings protests Bay Area: Crowds gather early at ICE building in San Francisco
No Kings demonstrations are planned in over 2,000 cities across the nation today, on President Donald Trump's birthday and coinciding with his military parade in Washington, D.C. After days of increasingly tense protests over immigration raids and Trump's deployment of military troops to Los Angeles, today's protests are expected to be among the largest seen in Trump's second term. Massive crowds are expected to gather in San Francisco, Oakland and other cities across the Bay Area — possibly causing traffic delays in some areas. To help snuff out any violence or disorder, organizers of the Bay Area's No Kings rallies have enlisted some of their participants as peacekeeping marshals. Chronicle reporters are at protests across the Bay Area and in Los Angeles and we will be providing live updates from the scene, as well as rounding up news happening across the country. Follow this live updating page for the latest developments all day. Crowds gather outside SoMa ICE building to 'shut it down' About 200 protesters marched outside 478 Tehama Street in San Francisco at 7 a.m. after immigrants received texts Friday ordering them to check in with immigration officials this weekend. 'We believe there's very high likelihood that means that they're planning to detain people on that site,' Sanika Mahajan with Mission Action said. Mahajan said immigrants were told to check in at the building that houses the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which is run by ICE. This building 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 demonstrators were trying to shut down the building, similar to immigration courts that closed early on Tuesday during protests. 'We are still going to show up and if they're going to try to abduct our community members from the city, they'll have to answer to the people,' Mahajan said. No Kings protest locations in the Bay Area Demonstrations are planned in many Bay Area cities, with large gatherings anticipated in Oakland and San Francisco. San Francisco: Protesters will gather around 11:30 a.m. at Mission Dolores Park before marching to Civic Center Plaza, where there will be speakers from community organizations. Organizers have said there will be a short speech at the park before a truck of organizers will lead chants and play music while leading demonstrators to the plaza for speeches beginning around 1 p.m., Soroceanu said. Speakers will include Alex U. Inn of the People's March, Tanisha Humphrey of the ACLU of Northern California, constitutional law attorney Mauni Jalali and Sanika Mahajan of Mission Action. Other protesters in San Francisco will gather at Ocean Beach at 10 a.m. to create a human banner spelling out 'No Kings.' Berkeley: 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Berkeley Bike and Pedestrian Bridge over Interstate 80, south of University Avenue Palo Alto: The '7x7k Palo Alto to Sunnyvale Rally' will feature thousands of people lined up across seven miles to form a line between the Palo Alto and Sunnyvale Tesla showrooms. A parade is also planned at the corner of El Camino and Embarcadero from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Dozens of other protests are planned in the East Bay, the South Bay and in Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties, a map on the No Kings website showed. Timeline: No Kings protests happening around the country Here's a look at some of the largest protests planned around the country, with a timeline on when they will all kick off. All times listed are in Pacific Time. Boston: The city's Pride celebration is on Saturday; Mass 50501, part of the movement organizing protests across the country, encouraged people to join Pride with protest signs. The parade will begin at 8 a.m. and run until 9:30 a.m. Philadelphia: National organizers said they intend for this to be the largest of the No Kings protests in a nod to the city's role in the country's founding. It's set to begin at LOVE Park at 9 a.m. Pacific Time and to end at 12 p.m. Dallas: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., Akard Plaza Los Angeles: At least a dozen groups have planned protests in the L.A. area, with some starting as early as 9 a.m. and some as late as 4 p.m. The protest in downtown L.A. is scheduled to go from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Phoenix: 9 a.m., Arizona state Capitol Chicago: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Daley Plaza Sacramento: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in downtown Sacramento, on the west steps of the state Capitol building San Diego: 10 a.m. to noon at Waterfront Park New York City: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Bryant Park Seattle: 11 a.m., University of Washington's Red Square, ahead of the school's commencement ceremony; 12 p.m., Cal Anderson Park Denver: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park, There is no protest scheduled in Washington D.C. Organizers have said that they did not want it to appear the protests were directly opposing Trump's military parade. What happens if Waymos are lit on fire? Firefighters in San Francisco are bracing for one dramatic form of protest theater today: The torching of Waymo robotaxis. Burning the driverless cars became a fraught symbol of the moment during protests in Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday, which tipped off a week of escalating tension between President Donald Trump and California's major blue cities. Photos of the charred, smoldering, graffiti-scrawled cars instantly went viral on social media, transforming a manicured Southern California boulevard into an apparent war zone. If it happens in San Francisco, Fire Chief Dean Crispen said at a recent meeting, it might be better to let the cars burn. 'In a period of civil unrest, we will not try to extinguish those fires unless they are up against a building,' Crispen told members of the San Francisco Fire Commission on Wednesday. He explained that since the electric Waymo SUVs run on lithium ion batteries, they burn 'incredibly hot' and tend to explode when ignited. Such blazes are challenging to put out, and become dangerous due to the rapidly rising temperatures of the cars' batteries, a phenomenon called 'thermal runaway,' Crispen said. These sudden spikes can lead to sporadic eruptions. Quelling a Waymo fire would require connecting to a fire hydrant and essentially tethering firefighters to a single area, in a situation where they need to be mobile and agile. Why are people protesting? 'The protest is a manifestation of our displeasure — the American people — with the Trump regime, and Trump specifically,' said Liliana Soroceanu, an organizer with Indivisible SF. Indivisible SF and 50501 are working alongside other local activist organizations to organize San Francisco's No Kings protest. Organizers called Trump a 'would-be king' and hope to draw a contrast between protesters voicing concerns and the military parade Saturday, which marks the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, as well as Trump's 79th birthday. 'We're not gathering to feed his ego,' the event's website said. 'We're building a movement that leaves him behind.' Soroceanu said the protest also falls on Flag Day and offers protesters a chance to bring American flags to celebrate the country and the right to protest. 'The flag doesn't belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us,' the event's website says. Organizers from various organizations involved in planning San Francisco's demonstrations have received more than 4,000 RSVPs to the event, which she expects will be bigger than the Hands Off rally in April, which brought thousands to Civic Center Plaza, Soroceanu said.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE protests descend into mashup of left-wing rally cries as Gaza and police brutality chants drown out immigration
Protests against immigration raids conducted by the Trump administration have morphed into demonstrations against a variety of left-wing causes, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza and police brutality in the U.S. At a 'March to Defend Immigrant Rights' protest in St. Louis on Wednesday, participants turned to the outcry following an infamous police brutality case in 2014, chanting, 'From Ferguson to Palestine, occupation is a crime,' according to The New York Times. In Chicago this week, chants could be heard at a protest taking aim at U.S. immigration policy as well as the war in Gaza: 'From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go!' The left has long worked under the notion that all oppressed people are connected, which means protests are often large but also lack a coherent message. Labor groups have been leading the charge this week to bring protests into the streets. Numerous protests, including those in Los Angeles, have primarily focused on immigration raids conducted at workplaces. However, other protests have focused on a wide variety of causes and concerns. The earlier protests have been coordinated by major groups such as MoveOn and Indivisible. Those groups have worked to keep the focus on issues such as Medicaid and Social Security cuts, the influence of billionaires, as well as immigration policies. However, this week, protests also included issues such as racial justice, Palestinian rights, and socialist policies. The largest individual union in the U.S., the National Education Association, took action when the protests began in Los Angeles. Other groups that have taken on leadership roles include local chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. They have worked with local leftist groups to share information about demonstrations all over the country. Supporters of Palestinian rights have appeared at protests in several places, including Chicago and New York. As the march in St. Louis came to an end on Wednesday, several groups attempted to garner support for queer rights, Black Lives Matter, and for tornado victims. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Voices for Palestine Network, Black Men Build St. Louis, and the Ecosocialist Green Party all took to social media to promote the march in St. Louis, according to The Times. 'St. Louis is a small city, and a lot of the people that care about organizing for human rights tend to all work loosely with each other through an unofficial coalition,' activist Kaitlyn Killgo told the paper. Democrats have discussed the possibility, following their losses in 2024, that treating all issues as equally vital may have damaged their appeal. The executive director of the low-income and immigrant advocacy group Mission Action, Laura Valdez, called the ICE arrest of a Los Angeles labor leader 'a four-alarm fire.' Following the Friday video of the detention of the labor leader, Mission Action was taking part in protests by Monday, which was a reaction to the Trump administration's immigration raids. Left-leaning groups could quickly gather people to protest, as they had been protesting Trump's policies for most of the year. 'Emergency protest: solidarity with LA! We'll see y'all tomorrow at the state capitol to say 'ICE out of our cities! Stop the deportations!'' the Austin, Texas chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation wrote on social media on Monday. Similarly, also on Monday, the New York workers' rights group the People's Forum, told supporters there would be a protest on Tuesday backing Los Angeles. 'We refuse to be silenced! The people of New York City demand ICE get out of our communities, stop the deportations, and stop the raids,' they said. Leaders of progressive groups often speak to each other several times a day about how the Trump administration's policies impact their communities. Such groups have also taken steps to educate immigrants, students, educators, and religious leaders about their rights as well as provide legal help and mutual aid. The network reacted swiftly after ICE agents started going into workplaces in Los Angeles last week. 'We could see that the government had decided it would be more effective to apprehend hundreds of people through workplace enforcement rather than having several agents try to go after one person at a time,' said Valdez. This comes as widespread protests have been planned for Saturday across the country, coinciding with the military parade in Washington, D.C.
CBS News
10-03-2025
- Health
- CBS News
San Francisco low-income housing co-op for people with HIV, AIDS fights to stay open
A low-income housing cooperative for people with HIV and AIDS is fighting to stay open in San Francisco. On Sunday afternoon, Marty's Place hosted an Emergency Punk and Drag Fundraiser at El Rio bar on Mission Street to bolster its legal defense fund and protect its residents. The board of directors says the property owners, the non-profit Mission Action, are threatening to terminate their lease five years before it's set to expire in 2030. Paul Aguilar, who currently lives in the facility, is one of many people trying to keep it open. "When it was founded by Father Richard Purcell it was a place for people with AIDS to die," said Aguilar, thinking back to a time when AIDS was a death sentence. "Now it's a place for people with HIV to live." Purcell's property was transferred to Mission Action in 2011 after his death. Aguilar moved into Marty's Place in November of 2021 when he was at his lowest. "I struggled to even wake up in the morning," said Aguilar. At the time, he was 58 years old, living with HIV, and suddenly found himself homeless. Aguilar says he didn't know what he was going to do until he visited his friend and president of Marty's Place Michael Rouppet. "He's like, 'You're exactly where you need to be,' and I'm like, 'What are you talking about? I'm at Marty's Place?' and he goes, 'That's where you need to be,'" recounted Aguilar. If evicted by Mission Action, members of Marty's Place say many of them will have nowhere to go. It will also end what is believed to be the only co-housing for people living with HIV or AIDs in the county. It changed Aguilar's life. "I ended up getting this position at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation with their aging services department," said Aguilar. "Being someone who was supposed to die at 30 years old, being 58 was a freaking miracle, but to be able to work with the community is amazing." It's hard for him to think about the possibility of losing his home. "The thought of that is stifling," Aguilar said. "That now at soon to be 62 years old to be homeless again." Co-founder, President of the Board of Directors, and resident Michael Rouppet says they've been trying to come to an agreement with Mission Action for years. "We had made a proposal to purchase," said Rouppet about conversations the board has had with Mission Action. "We suspect and they've indicated that they want to sell the property and what better way to sell it? We invited them to work with us. Unfortunately, they broke that trust and tried to leverage us in court." Rouppet says they have a model that works and can be used to help other low-income communities. He believes it needs to be protected and Aguilar agrees. "I never plan to leave," said Aguilar. "They're going to have to find a way to carry me up the stairs to my room." At this point, there is no set move-out date.
