
Around midday Tuesday, June 10, organizers got word that ICE would be attempting to detain people showing up for their court appointments. Immediately the call went out to community organizations and labor groups to mobilize at the courthouse in San Francisco’s Financial district, as well as the courthouse in Concord. Not even an hour later, several hundred activists, community members, and union members showed up to defend the rights of our immigrant friends, family and coworkers.
Organized into at least 4 picket lines, protestors blocked all of the entrances, refusing to let federal agents get away with abducting valued members of our communities. After a couple hours of picketing, with more and more people showing up to support, the decision was made to cancel all of the remaining court dates for the day. There can be no doubt that this is a victory. ICE was shown that they cannot do as they please and that the community will make it costly and difficult at every step of the way. Of course, ICE will not give up and will try again and again to enforce their inhumane policies. And we will be back again and again, as many times as it takes.