Feds Detain Protester and Pepper Spray Journalist After Clash Outside SF ICE Office

Updated 4:41 p.m. Wednesday

At least one protester was detained, and two people, including a journalist, were hit with pepper spray by federal immigration officers Wednesday morning after a standoff outside the agency’s San Francisco office became violent.

Protesters first faced off with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside the nearby immigration courthouse at 100 Montgomery St. after officers arrested a man inside.

“Why are you disappearing our community?” one protester yelled as officers guided the man into a waiting van and began to drive away.

The protest escalated, spreading to the Financial District ICE field office, which is often used as a holding facility for immigrants detained across the Bay Area.

One protester outside ICE’s Sansome Street office was tackled, zip-tied and taken inside shortly after about a dozen people, who followed officers on foot the half-mile from the immigration court, arrived.

Minutes earlier, as the group walked toward the office, an officer pepper-sprayed both a protester and a journalist.

About two blocks north of the immigration court, Gazetteer reporter Eddie Kim told KQED he was sprayed in the eyes while trying to record an altercation between an ICE officer and a protester. He said a person rolling a bicycle alongside the group was walking calmly when an ICE officer reached out and grabbed hold of the bike’s handle.

The officer then sprayed the protester and Kim with a pepper spray gel.

“It wasn’t provoked,” Kim told KQED. “It’s not like the bike was being moved to hit the agent or get in their way. It was just a person just walking with the group … There were no aggressive movements other than me approaching the scene.”

Altercations between ICE and protesters outside the downtown court and field office have grown increasingly common since federal agents began arresting asylum seekers reporting to the buildings for mandatory status hearings and check-in appointments — a tactic that was unheard of until earlier this year.

In recent weeks, officers have also detained multiple protesters as tensions have escalated. Last Friday, two people were pinned to the ground and handcuffed before being walked into the Financial District ICE office.

“It’s also very clear that when people mobilize, it affects ICE in a major way,” Kim said. “They’re clearly affected by the presence of protesters to the point where they’re willing to deploy force against people who are not even an active threat.”

After hearing reports around 8:30 a.m., Wednesday, that a man had been arrested inside the immigration court building, protesters first gathered outside on Montgomery Street, standing in the way of the building’s lower-profile side door in an attempt to block ICE officers’ path to a line of waiting vans.

One protester who refused to stand back from the door was shoved to the ground, while another was pushed away toward the street.

Masked officers exited the building with the detained man, who was dressed in a suit and had his hands secured behind his back. They escorted him to the vehicle as protesters yelled for them to stop.

Protesters popped a front tire of the van before it took off south down Montgomery Street, along with two other vehicles. One officer yelled that a protester who ran down the street had a knife, and the officer reached for his gun but did not unholster it.

At least 20 protesters moved into the streets and crosswalks surrounding the court building, attempting to block the vans’ path. Some held bicycles and others stood in front of cars, trying to keep them in place.

An ICE officer shot a weapon, producing a white powder into the leg of a protester jostling with others over a bike.

At the same time, the dozen or so people who migrated to Sansome Street began to head north, some running in the street.

Following the protester’s detention at the field office, many of the protesters who had traveled to Sansome Street dispersed. Others remained at the courthouse on Montgomery Street midmorning.