Late Tuesday morning, around a dozen ICE agents forced through a crowd of protesters, deploying tear gas and pointing a gun at protestors and press. Video shows federal agents shoving a handcuffed man into the back of an unmarked van before speeding through the handful of protestors who stood in front of the vehicle, dragging one person half a block before swerving, throwing the individual to the pavement and nearly running them over. Such violent scenes are becoming increasingly common in front of the immigration courthouse in the Financial District of San Francisco, as the agency works to meet President Trump and senior advisor Stephen Miller’s 3,000 per-day arrest quota. ICE agents did not return to the courthouse following the morning’s events.
As news of high-profile, violent ICE raids spreads throughout the Bay Area, community organizations report that many immigrants are afraid to leave their homes to go to work, or even to send their children to summer camps in fear that federal agents may detain and whisk them across the country to detention centers, many of which are in terrible condition. Already, several U.S. citizens have been taken into detention by ICE, in some cases despite having documentation proving citizenship on their person. And this is all before the passing of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which will increase the ICE budget for hiring and operations by tens of billions of dollars, making the agency the largest law enforcement organization in the country.
What we are now witnessing is only the build-up to what Trump and Miller promise will be the largest deportation effort in the history of the country. The violence we are seeing now will only continue to escalate. U.S. citizens will continue to be caught up in their racist dragnets. And while it is immigrant workers and families that are now the main targets, the Trump administration will certainly not stop there. We must make a stand now, as activists and community members are doing daily. Each Tuesday, individuals will gather outside the courthouse building at 100 Montgomery Street to send a clear message: if you want to abduct our neighbors and coworkers, you will have to go through us first, each and every time.
