‘Not Today’: SF Officials, Activists Vow to Mobilize Against Immigration Enforcement

As protesters rallied across the bay at Alameda’s Coast Guard Island, a coalition of labor, faith and city leaders gathered Thursday on the steps of San Francisco City Hall to denounce President Donald Trump’s mobilization of federal immigration agents in the Bay Area and share resources for community members who are at risk.

“They want us to backtrack our sanctuary policy,” said San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielder. “They want us to hand over our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends … to ICE. They want to tap our surveillance networks … to let Trump spy on our streets, our families, our people. They want our police to help them enforce their racist immigration agenda. Well, I say hell no. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever.”

Led by grassroots group Bay Resistance, the rally’s speakers included San Francisco Supervisors Chyanne Chen and Shamann Walton, as well as representatives from the San Francisco Labor Council, United Educators of San Francisco, SEIU Local 87, Mission Action and Trabajadores Unidos.

The groups stood against Trump’s decision this week to send more than 100 Customs and Border Protection agents to Alameda’s Coast Guard base as part of a major immigration enforcement operation in the Bay Area.

Early Thursday morning, around 300 peaceful protesters assembled outside the Oakland entrance to Coast Guard Island. Activists told KQED that CBP agents drove through the crowd in SUVs, setting off flash-bang grenades; one of their vehicles ran over a protester’s foot. Another masked agent shot pepper powder at a reverend who attempted to block a vehicle, according to a witness. Two people were arrested as the protest dragged on into the afternoon.

Elected officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as community activists, have warned that Trump could use protests as a pretext to send in the National Guard to San Francisco or other Bay Area cities. But Thursday morning, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced that he received a late-night phone call from the president, who told him he’d call off federal deployment to the city.

“My team will continue to monitor the situation closely, and our city remains prepared for any scenario,” Lurie said in a statement.

Many of the speakers on the City Hall steps were skeptical. “We want everyone to know that, regardless of new announcements, we stand with our communities,” Walton said. “We have to be careful because we do not trust this administration.”

Fielder went further, denouncing Lurie’s statement that, although he opposes federalization of the National Guard, he’d welcome collaboration with the FBI; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and federal prosecutors to arrest drug dealers in San Francisco.

“We should not negotiate with a fascist administration,” Fielder said.

Several speakers pointed out that even if Trump doesn’t deploy the National Guard, CBP agents in Alameda still put people at risk. “As everyone knows, our workers live in the nine Bay Area counties and beyond,” said Kim Tavaglione, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council. “Labor is vowing to protect every worker in every county in the Bay Area.”

Cassondra Curiel, president of United Educators of San Francisco, said that her union members are worried that heightened immigration enforcement increases their chances of being racially profiled and arrested, even if they are citizens or permanent residents. A recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for immigration enforcement agents to use race as a pretext to stop and detain people.

“We know these agents are going to profile Latino communities, Spanish speakers, Black people and Asian people, which is the majority — literally 78% — of our entire district,” Curiel told KQED in an interview after the rally.

Many of the activists pointed to mutual aid resources, including those assembled by Bay Resistance. The organization has a know-your-rights toolkit and phone numbers to a rapid-response network where people can report ICE agent sightings in all nine Bay Area counties, and get help if a loved one has been detained. Volunteers have also been watching street corners where day laborers gather and reporting ICE activity through the Adopt a Corner program.

Laura Valdez, executive director of Mission Action and a representative of the San Francisco Rapid Response Network, implored immigrants to take precautions, including sharing identifying information such as their full legal name and immigration file “A-number” with trusted loved ones so that her organization can help locate them if they get detained by ICE.

“This might be the start of mass enforcement of our communities, and we need to prepare adequately,” Valdez said.

Bay Resistance will lead another protest on Thursday at 5 p.m. at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza.