2 Arrests at Coast Guard Base Blockade During Trump Immigration Crackdown

Two people have been arrested at the entrance to Alameda’s Coast Guard Island Thursday, where hundreds of Bay Area residents have been stationed for hours, protesting the Trump administration’s deployment of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Coast Guard Base Alameda.

Agents began arriving early Thursday morning, according to activists, as part of President Donald Trump’s long-anticipated expansion of immigration enforcement operations in the Bay Area.

Protesters said they began picketing at the intersection near the sole access bridge to the Coast Guard base overnight, before San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and President Donald Trump announced Thursday that a planned federal “surge” into San Francisco this weekend had been called off.

The president has not addressed other Bay Area cities, which remain on high alert, or clarified what this means for the CBP officers who arrived in the East Bay early Thursday.

Around 2:30 p.m., organizers called on protesters to disperse and reconvene at Fruitvale Station in East Oakland around 4 p.m., after California Highway Patrol officers said they would arrest people who didn’t clear the intersection to allow civilians working on the island to leave.

Some protesters refusing to move have engaged in an ongoing standoff with the law enforcement officials. By 3 p.m., CHP had largely cleared the middle of the intersection, but many people remained on the sides of the road.

Tensions first flared early Thursday morning, when around six marked CBP vans were able to enter the base shortly before 7 a.m. One official threw what appeared to be a flash-bang grenade into the crowd, and a van drove over the ankle of an organizer who was attempting to speak with the agents inside, according to activists.

Another agent exited their vehicle and shot pepper powder at a local faith leader attempting to block the road, according to Penny Nixon, with the Peninsula Solidarity Cohort.

“He [the reverend] was saying, ‘I come in peace’ in front of a car and an [immigration] agent geared up, masked, got out of the car, raised his weapon and shot,” she said. “What they are doing is immoral. It is anti-American, anti-democracy. But more than anything, it is immoral.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Friday that law enforcement provided “ample notice” to clear the street and “used appropriate force to clear the area for the safety of law enforcement.”

“Purposefully impeding access to federal buildings and law enforcement is dangerous and is not peacefully protesting,” a spokesperson said via email.

Smaller scuffles continued throughout the morning, but most of the protest was calm, with a steady flow of people joining and leaving the picket line at the intersection at the base’s access bridge. Alameda resident Nadine Skinner stopped by on her lunch break with apple strudels and beignets for the protesters who’d been standing in the streets for hours.

“For those who are still here staying, I want to support them and support our community,” she told KQED. “It’s hungering work protecting your community.”

“Disruption is a way to send a message … and right now, what’s going on is that ICE is not welcome in the Bay,” said Melanie Jasper, who’s been at the protest since 8:30 a.m.

She said that after at least some federal agents have accessed the island: “We don’t want to let them off their s—-y little island. If they want to hang out there, they can. They can’t come into our community.”

Just after 12:30 p.m., California Highway Patrol officers arrived, saying they needed to keep access on and off the island open after emergency personnel had been unable to get through in response to an earlier 911 call.

Sgt. Andrew Barclay, CHP spokesperson, said the agency “supports peoples’ right to First Amendment speech, protected protest.”

Initially, protesters appeared to abide by CHP’s request, moving cars out of their way while continuing to sing hymns, bang drums and play music. But after CHP threatened to begin making arrests if protesters did not move around 2:30 p.m., organizers called on the crowd to disperse.

The protest in Oakland has been the first of many expected in the Bay Area in response to the immigration officials’ arrival. Hundreds also gathered on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall Thursday afternoon to oppose immigration enforcement in the city after the dispatch triggered fears that Trump was following through on promises to ramp up operations.

Sandra, 25, arrived at the demonstration shortly before noon. She said she planned to stay for a few hours before heading into San Francisco for another rally planned this evening.

“I come from a family of mixed-status people,” said Sandra, an East Bay resident and DACA recipient. “I wake up, it’s on my mind. Go to sleep, it is on my mind.

“It’s just the everyday fear, like constantly having to remind your family members that they have rights, constantly having to remind people not to open the doors … I have family members who are scared to go to the grocery store, scared to get gas, scared to go get water. Basic necessities.”

Throughout the summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP officers have ramped up local enforcement operations, moving to have undocumented immigrants’ asylum cases dismissed and making detentions outside of courtrooms and ICE field offices. The move was unprecedented prior to the Trump administration.

“It feels like an invasion,” said Oakland resident Sonia Diermayer, who was at the Oakland protest earlier Thursday morning. “It feels as if the federal government is basically invading our communities to spread terrorism and fear, and it’s working.”

Recent expanded immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Portland, Oregon, has been followed by Trump sending National Guard troops to the cities. Though he has cited alleged crime spikes and violent protests against immigration enforcement operations as justification, with little evidence to show for it, the rollouts of federal troops have all targeted Democrat-led cities and raised criticisms of abuse of power.

Over the last few weeks, Trump has set his eyes on the Bay Area, and specifically San Francisco, as the next target for National Guard deployment.

“It’s the authoritarian playbook,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a press conference Wednesday. “For this administration, you send first masked men to the cities that you want to militarize … communities are torn asunder, it creates anxiety and stress, and that manifests into expressions of free speech. And then you use those expressions and those images as the justification to send the guard and suppress free speech, suppress free expression.”

Lurie and Trump confirmed that plans for a federal “surge” into San Francisco Saturday were called off after late-night conversations between the president, his “friends in the city” — including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff — and Lurie.

“I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Thursday. “The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject.”

Lurie did not provide any information about other Bay Area cities while speaking to reporters Thursday.

“It would be really disturbing to me if Lurie didn’t have an agreement with the other mayors of the Bay Area … to make sure that we are united in stopping ICE from harming our communities,” said Michelle Mascarenhas, who was among the protesters. “That’s what I would be concerned about.”

San José Mayor Matt Mahan said in a social media statement that Trump did the “right thing” by calling off the deployment in San Francisco, adding that the South Bay city was the “safest big city in the nation because of the trust built between our police officers and our residents.

“We know how to keep our community safe — and we will continue to do so regardless of immigration status,” he wrote on X.

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said at a press conference Thursday that her office hasn’t received any information and will continue to prepare. On Wednesday, Lee said the city “remains a proud sanctuary city committed to standing with our immigrant families.”

“I want to have a clean conscience for the future generations after,” Diermayer said. “That I’ve done my part. For my grandchildren, and children, and nieces and nephews … I want to give them some hope that there’s a future for them here in America.”

KQED’s Erin Baldassari and Adhiti Bandlamudi contributed to this report.