Anti-ICE protestors chant over SFPD officers during a demonstration outside of the ICE offices in San Francisco on June 8, 2025. The mass demonstration on Monday was at least the fourth protest in two days in San Francisco, after ICE officers last week arrested about 20 immigrants in the city. (Aryk Copley for KQED)
Updated 5:55 p.m. Tuesday
While Monday night’s protests in San Francisco against immigration raids were notably more restrained than the previous night’s demonstrations, police scuffled with smaller groups later in the night and arrested at least 92 protesters, the city’s police department confirmed.
“I think last night was much calmer. I think it was much more coordinated,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said at a Tuesday morning press conference, maintaining that the city had “delivered a clear message” on Sunday night, when more than 150 people were arrested after clashing with police.
“We will always protect the right to protest peacefully, but violence and destruction have no place in our city,” he said. “That message was heard.”
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The vast majority of the thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the Mission District and in front of City Hall on Monday were peaceful, Lurie said, praising organizers for coordinating closely with the city.
“I think we are showing the country how you can do this in a peaceful, respectful manner,” he said.
Monday night, however, was not without trouble, noted Deputy Police Chief Derrick Lew.
Protesters face off with SFPD during an anti-ICE protest in San Francisco on June 8, 2025. (Aryk Copley for KQED)
“As the crowds dispersed, some smaller groups splintered off and began engaging in vandalism and property destruction,” Lew said. “As we’ve said over and over, this kind of behavior has no place in our city.”
Police issued a dispersal order around 10 p.m. after “multiple individuals” began destroying property and obstructing traffic near Market Street and Van Ness Avenue, Lew said.
Video footage of the faceoff, captured by Mission Local, shows officers zip-tying protesters and then tackling several to the ground after a brief scuffle broke out. As police shout at the group to back up, one officer shoots pepper spray rounds and others point their long guns. Onlookers are heard chanting, “Let them go!”
“Our officers encircled roughly 80 individuals and made arrests, which assisted us in immediately taking control of the situation,” Lew said at the press conference, adding that officers deployed less-lethal munitions. “This small group of individuals does not represent the thousands of people yesterday who were peaceful and respectful.”
Lurie acknowledged a heightened level of “fear and anxiety in our communities” and pledged to “always protect your right to make your voices heard peacefully.” But he reiterated his administration’s zero-tolerance approach to property destruction.
Among those briefly detained by police were two student journalists with UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian, even though they said they identified themselves to police and were wearing visible press credentials.
Police declared everyone within the surrounded area under arrest, including the journalists, an Uber Eats delivery worker “who was simply just passing through,” and three young women who had stepped out of their nearby apartment building at the wrong time, Mukherjee told KQED.
“I think the fact that we are student journalists did not help our case in terms of being released once detained,” said Mukherjee, adding that he and his colleague were released after a commanding officer eventually checked their press credentials about 45 minutes after being detained.
“Perhaps it’s simply the fact that we look young,” like many of the other protesters arrested, he said. “I guess they may not have immediately believed we were press because of that, despite the fact that [we] were wearing Daily Californian press passes, hard hats with ‘Press’ written on them, and repeatedly declared the fact that we are press.”
The mass demonstration on Monday was at least the fourth protest in two days in San Francisco, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last week arrested more than 20 immigrants in the city, including about 15 who had come for check-in appointments at an ICE office on Wednesday.
It comes as the Trump administration has begun dramatically ramping up immigration raids, sparking tumultuous protests in multiple cities throughout the state and country.
A Los Angeles police officer uses a baton to push back a protester offering them a flower along a street near a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Eric Thayer/AP Photo)
In response to unrest over the weekend in Los Angeles, President Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops into the city on Saturday without Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent, arguing that doing so was necessary to protect ICE and other federal officers from “violent mobs.” The Pentagon on Monday also mobilized more than 700 Marines in California to respond to the protests in L.A.
The deployment, which appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, was roundly condemned by Newsom and scores of other state and local leaders, who accused the president of inflaming tensions and sowing chaos. After California sued the administration, Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday asked a federal court to impose immediate restrictions on the troops in L.A.
Lew tried to distance the San Francisco Police Department from any actions taken by federal agents, underscoring that police strictly adhere to the city’s longstanding sanctuary policy.
“I want to tell our immigrant communities that we support you and we are committed to building trust with you,” he said, encouraging anyone who witnesses a crime or is a victim of one to come forward to police “without fear.”
“Immigration enforcement is the federal government’s job,” Lew added. “It is not the responsibility of SFPD.”
