Protestors rally in the Mission District in San Francisco in opposition to the Trump Administration's immigration policy and enforcement on June 9, 2025. San Francisco’s downtown immigration court is shutting down for the day, activists said, after responding to at least two ICE arrests there — the first in more than two weeks. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Updated 2:56 p.m.
San Francisco’s immigration court shut down for the day after more than 100 people rallied against the arrests of at least two immigrants by federal officers at the downtown building.
The arrests on Tuesday morning were the first in more than two weeks at the 100 Montgomery St. site, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began making unprecedented detainments of people reporting for asylum hearings last month.
“Make no mistake, if we hadn’t been out here today … there would have been more detentions,” Sanika Mahajan with Mission Action said as Tuesday’s picket dispersed. “This is people power.”
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Just before noon, activist Lia McGeever, who went to the court building on Tuesday morning after seeing a request for support on social media, said three plainclothes ICE officers wearing masks exited the building with one immigrant in custody, then quickly shoved the person into a waiting unmarked van.
She said that activists tried to get the person’s phone number to contact their family, and others surrounded the van in an attempt to stop the vehicle, but it eventually turned the corner and drove away.
“I really thought someone was going to get run over,” she said. “It was very shocking to see, it was very emotional to see, and I don’t think it’s going to stop. I think we’re going to go on trend with the rest of the country and other parts of California, and we’re going to see more of this.”
Emilia Rivera and other protesters march in the Mission District in San Francisco in opposition to the Trump Administration’s immigration policy and enforcement on June 9, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
Just after noon, dozens of protesters filed into a picket line extending around the majority of the building in an attempt to block ICE officers from exiting with people who had been detained, they said.
Both the Concord and San Francisco immigration courts shut down at 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review, which conducts the court proceedings.
According to Luna Osleger-Montañez, an organizer with the We Fight Back Coalition, at least two people were arrested Tuesday at the San Francisco immigration court. More arrests were made at Concord’s facility in the East Bay.
At least six people have now been arrested at the city’s immigration court since ICE officials began appearing in the hallways of similar facilities across the state in May.
Advocates have accused ICE of trying to scare immigrants into not appearing for asylum hearings by waiting to arrest people after their hearings. If an immigrant fails to appear, they can automatically lose their case and be deported in absentia.
“I saw a person get kidnapped by masked people in plainclothes, in a plain car. I don’t know how that’s any different from just a random kidnapping,” McGeever told KQED.
“I literally did yell out, ‘An ICE abduction is happening, an ICE abduction is happening,’ and I’m looking at people on different corners and they’re just standing there dumbfounded,” she said.
Last week, ICE officials also detained at least 15 immigrants, including a 3-year-old, attending check-in appointments at the ICE field office in San Francisco. On Friday, a man was arrested at the city’s federal courthouse after appearing for an immigration hearing there.
The return of ICE agents to the downtown immigration court comes after two nights of protests across the city denouncing the ramped-up enforcement efforts and the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops — usually under states’ direction — to Los Angeles to quell protests there.
More than 150 people were arrested after an offshoot of a San Francisco protest became violent Sunday night, and further arrests were made following a peaceful march that brought thousands of people to the Mission District on Monday evening.
“ICE is not promoting public safety. It’s promoting violence and racism. As a sanctuary city, San Francisco will not stand for it,” Supervisor Jackie Fielder said at the rally.
Another city supervisor, Bilal Mahmood, is expected to introduce legislation aimed at protecting protesters Tuesday afternoon as more demonstrations, including one in Oakland, are planned.
