5 days ago
ICE arrests 15 people, including 3-year-old child, in San Francisco, advocates say
At least 15 people, including children as young as 3-years-old, were detained Wednesday during their scheduled check-ins at the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco, according to immigration-rights advocates.
Some of the families and children were apparently held overnight at the ICE field office, at 630 Sansome St., on Thursday morning and told they will be deported, according to Priya Patel, supervising attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. The detainees are residents of San Francisco and Contra Costa and San Mateo counties, advocates said.
People with pending immigration cases typically have to check in with ICE officials at least once a year as they make their way through a backlogged court system. There have been reports of arrests at routine check-ins throughout the country.
Richard Beam, a spokesperson for ICE, could not immediately provide more information about the arrests.
The arrests at the ICE field office occurred on the same day that ICE reportedly detained an unknown number of people outside a supermarket in South San Jose. Last week, ICE arrested four men following their appearances in San Francisco Immigration Court last Tuesday, according to advocates. Immigrants were arrested at Concord Immigration Court as well, the advocates said.
One of the women detained Wednesday was identified by her sister as Thalía Esperanza Vilcapoma Laura, a 25-year-old Peruvian woman. Laura and her two children, ages 5 and 10, were held at the ICE field office overnight and slept on the floor, said her sister, Yaneth.
Yaneth, who has been in contact with her sister since the arrest, said Laura and her children have not been given food or told by ICE officers if they intend to deport her.
'She's really scared,' Yaneth said, adding that she could hear her 5-year-old niece crying when she's on the phone with Laura.
'They're treating them like animals. Where are their rights?' she said.
Laura arrived in the U.S. in 2023 with her two children after fleeing her abusive husband in Peru. She does not have a criminal background and worked cleaning homes in the Bay Area, her sister said.
Laura was not given the chance to have a hearing for her asylum claim, the attorney said.
'This is outrageous,' Patel said. 'They're disappearing families and not even giving folks the courtesy of telling us what they're going to do with them when these are families who have legitimate fears of returning to their country.'
San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who represents the Mission District, called the detentions on Wednesday 'unconscionable, unlawful and authoritarian' in a social media post.
'San Francisco can no longer pretend it is immune from the reaches of the Trump administration,' Fielder said in a statement. 'Every official and organized body must denounce this attack on constitutional rights and express support for our immigrant San Franciscans.'
Demonstrators held a protest outside of the ICE field office on Wednesday evening in response to the detentions.
'We're ready to mobilize,' said Sanika Mahajan of the San Francisco Rapid Response Network and Mission Action.
