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Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:00] I’m Ericka Cruz-Guevarra and welcome to The Bay, local news to keep you rooted.
Reverend Penny Nixon [00:00:09] So we got here about seven in the morning and there was just a really a huge line of cars. We saw people walking up and down the crosswalk to block entrance into the Coast Guard station.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:00:23] On Thursday morning, federal officials arrived at the entrance to the U.S. Coast Guard base in Oakland. Word had spread that border agents were coming, and the Bay Area started preparing for a surge in immigration enforcement operations.
Joseph Horseradish [00:00:43] Well, it feels like an invasion. I mean, it feel as if the federal government is basically invading our communities to spread terrorism and fear, and it’s working. They’re here. Their houses in my town. And I don’t want them here. They’re awful. They kidnap people. I don’— No, I don’t stand for this. This is not my America.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:08] Protesters say at least two people were injured in clashes with federal agents. One agent appeared to throw a flashbang grenade into the crowd, while another drove over an organizer’s ankle.
Reverend Penny Nixon [00:01:23] And then somebody threw some explosive that was a very loud bang and kind of scared everybody for a minute. And it confirms what I already know, that this is out of control.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:01:38] Later that day, President Donald Trump called off plans to send federal troops to San Francisco. But leaders in other parts of the Bay Area, like Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, say they’re still preparing for immigration actions to come.
Barbara Lee [00:01:58] In San Francisco, Mayor Lurie received a call from Donald Trump indicating that San Francisco was no longer on his list. That does not mean we are not prepared. We have no idea. This is very fluid.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:14] Today, how the Bay is bracing for a surge in immigration enforcement. I feel like the Bay Area hasn’t really seen the kind of big immigration enforcement actions that we’ve seen in L.A., that we have seen in Chicago, but the Bay has always been kind of bracing for that and anticipating it, right?
Tyche Hendricks [00:02:45] Well, that’s true. I mean, Trump has talked repeatedly about sending the National Guard to San Francisco.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:02:52] Tyche Hendricks is Senior Immigration Editor for KQED.
Tyche Hendricks [00:02:56] He’s so far done this only in cities that are led by Democrats, as you say, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland. These are places where the move to bring in troops began after a surge in immigration enforcement that then in turn triggered some outrage and resistance. But San Francisco has been aware that this could very well be coming.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:21] We’re talking on Thursday afternoon, Tyche, and I’d like to just sort of walk through the last 24 hours or so because it’s been pretty hectic.
Tyche Hendricks [00:03:31] A lot has happened, yes.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:33] But I want to start with Wednesday when the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Trump administration would begin deploying federal agents, including Customs and Border Protection to the Coast Guard Island in Alameda starting on Thursday. Tell us a little bit more about what was announced exactly.
Tyche Hendricks [00:03:54] Sure. I mean, I think the first thing to say is that nothing was announced. You know, this is not like a press release saying we’re doing this. ICE told me that they were not involved in this operation, but the Coast Guard told me that Customs and Border Protection officers would be based and supported out of the Coast guard station at Alameda. And then elected officials said that they heard specifically that within Customs and Border Protection, we’re talking about border patrol agents and that there could be up to a hundred of them. And agents did arrive in a convoy of vehicles around dawn, before dawn.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:35] I wanna sit with that a little bit because I do feel like the fear is, and I feel like there’s been a lot of rumors that this news meant that ICE was coming to the Bay Area, but it’s in fact border patrol agents. It seems like an important distinction to make.
Tyche Hendricks [00:04:54] Sure. Let me sort of break that down. Cause these are, you know, lots of acronyms and it can get a little confusing. We have a structure called the Department of Homeland Security, which includes a couple of immigration enforcement agencies. One of them is ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They do immigration enforcement in the interior of the country. The Border Patrol, which is part of another agency called Customs and Border Protection, patrols the borders, the land borders, typically with Canada and Mexico, and arrest people who they think don’t belong in the country and put them into removal proceedings. So those arrests are in some ways kind of similar. These are people who these agents consider are deportable. But the difference is that the Border Patrol typically does not do this kind of work in cities like San Francisco, like LA, Chicago, and yet in the last couple of few months, we have seen Border Patrol agents doing immigration enforcement in those places, and that’s remarkable. Let me just also make another point, which is there is a big ice. Field office in San Francisco and ICE agents are doing immigration enforcement every day, you know, and so that doesn’t stop. So whether or not there’s a surge of other officers from other agencies coming to the Bay Area, you know, ICE does operate here as just part of their routine.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:06:44] Well, that said, Tyche, we’re talking about between 60 to 100 Border Patrol agents being stationed in Alameda. Which parts of the Bay Area were anticipating immigration actions as a result of this deployment there?
Tyche Hendricks [00:07:01] Yeah, again, I think that’s really an unknown, and I think that’s some of what has contributed to the sense of fear in immigrant communities and the sense of pretty broad-based resistance to this kind of an enforcement from Governor Newsom, from Mayor Lurie in San Francisco, Mayor Barbara Lee in Oakland, and many other elected officials saying like, Look, we don’t want this, we don’t need this, we stand by our immigrant communities, and we certainly don’t want a military deployment here. But in terms of where immigration agents might be, making arrests, that has never been spelled out.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:05] Okay, so then we go into Thursday morning, expecting this federal deployment to begin, but then a sort of unexpected turn happens in San Francisco when Mayor Daniel Lurie announced that he got on the phone with President Donald Trump, who had apparently called off plans to send federal troops to San Francisco. And what does that announcement mean?
Tyche Hendricks [00:08:48] I was quite surprised when Mayor Lurie announced that he had had a call from President Trump, who called him and said that he decided against this.
Daniel Lurie [00:09:00] Late last night, I received a phone call from the President of the United States. In our conversation, the President told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal surge in San Francisco.
Tyche Hendricks [00:09:15] Apparently Trump said that he had been talking to friends. He specifically mentioned a couple of tech leaders in the Bay area who had counseled him that San Francisco didn’t need this kind of enforcement and that he decided to stand down at least for the time being.
Daniel Lurie [00:09:39] I told him the same thing that I have told our residents. San Francisco is on the rise. Visitors are coming back. Buildings are getting leased and purchased, and workers are coming to the office.
Tyche Hendricks [00:09:54] Lurie has said, look, I could use more collaboration from federal law enforcement like the FBI in our effort to tackle specifically fentanyl dealing specifically in the Tenderloin and maybe other neighborhoods, but you know, not just like soldiers with long guns marching into our neighborhoods.
Daniel Lurie [00:10:17] Our work to keep San Franciscans safe is why San Franciscan’s believe in our city and they believe that we are on the right track.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:28] So does this announcement in San Francisco mean that we’re not gonna see the kind of immigration enforcement surge that the entire Bay Area seemed to have been anticipating?
Tyche Hendricks [00:10:39] Yeah, again, I think there’s a question mark there. And Lurie was asked that in his press conference on Thursday midday. And he said, look, all I can tell you is what the president told me, which is that we’re calling off this surge.
Heather Knight [00:10:57] Should the East Bay and other parts of the region be concerned still?
Daniel Lurie [00:11:01] Uh, Heather, what the president said to me is that he is calling off the potential search. And that’s all I can say. I was told in the surge was being called off.
Tyche Hendricks [00:11:16] Is that about the whole Bay Area calling off a surge? Is it just about San Francisco? Unclear. And again, you know, ICE enforcement happens on the regular in the Bay Area and around California. Where we’ve seen it, honestly, in the Bay Area has been more arresting people in the hallways of immigration courthouses, arresting who are coming for their ICE check-ins. And we haven’t seen as much out on the streets, at the supermarket or the car wash or that sort of thing.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:11:58] Yeah, so it seems like even though there’s this question mark around what this San Francisco announcement means for the rest of the region, there’s still a feeling that the Bay Area needs to be prepared.
Tyche Hendricks [00:12:11] Yeah, and I think that we are hearing that from Mayor Lurie, we’re hearing it from Mayor Lee in Oakland, that they, you know, they do want to still be prepared.
Barbara Lee [00:12:23] Uh, in San Francisco, mayor Lurie received a call from Donald Trump. That does not mean we are not prepared. We have no idea. This is very fluid, but we are moving forward with our plans and we are prepared.
Tyche Hendricks [00:12:35] And Oakland’s Mayor Barbara Lee spoke on Thursday morning about how her city is preparing for what might come.
Barbara Lee [00:12:43] The Oakland Police Department does not and will not assist with immigration and customs enforcement. That policy stands firm, and our assistant chief will outline exactly how we are upholding it under tremendous pressure.
Tyche Hendricks [00:13:03] And I would also say we’re very much hearing it from, you know, from the immigrant advocates who have really ramped up Know Your Rights trainings. In the Bay Area, every county has a rapid response hotline that people are encouraged to call if they see what they suspect is immigration arrests and then, you know, lawyers and trained people can verify what’s going on. School districts saying, look, we know that we have a responsibility under California sanctuary laws to protect the non-public spaces of our schools, to protect the records of our students. I know there are also advocates who are planning to be eyes and ears on street corners where day laborers often congregate to look for jobs, and so there’s a, I think that vigilance will still remain.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:14:08] Do we know whether these 60 to 100 federal agents are still here or not?
Tyche Hendricks [00:14:16] We don’t know. I believe that some number of Customs and Border Protection agents arrived early, early Thursday morning before dawn at the Coast Guard station in Alameda. Mayor Lurie was told by the president that they were standing down, but have they left the Bay Area? I don’t now. We have seen in L.A., in Chicago, in Portland, that there has been an uptick in immigration arrests that has prompted some resistance, and then that has been used as a pretext for bringing in armed troops, the National Guard, and in the case of L. A., also the U.S. Marines. And so was that intended to be the trigger here as well? But time will tell, we didn’t see that and haven’t seen that so far.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:15:25] Well, Tyche, thank you so much for making the time in your very, very busy schedule this week. I appreciate it.
