S.F. immigration court shuts down after ICE protests, arrests

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Update: After publication, Mission Local confirmed at least four immigration arrests from this action.

San Francisco’s federal immigration courthouse shut down on Tuesday afternoon after about 200 people flocked downtown in response to videos showing agents arresting two people outside the court building.

Video captured by Mission Local reporters and onlookers showed agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement putting a man into a silver minivan outside 100 Montgomery St. on Tuesday morning while protesters surrounded the van.

“You’re kidnapping people!” one yells. “Pull your fucking mask off!” yells another as a small crowd surrounds the van and attempts to keep it from driving off. An ICE agent pushes them away.

“This is an ICE abduction!” someone yells as protesters begin banging on the van and pulling open its sliding doors. Other ICE vehicles soon join the minivan as it speeds off. “Pieces of fucking shit!” a protester yells after the minivan.

In a separate video captured by an advocate, several ICE agents bring the man, dressed in a white T-shirt, out of the courthouse through a throng of protesters. An ICE agent yells, “Back up! Do not impede my arrest.”

Video captured by the San Francisco Chronicle showed another man being led out of the courthouse escorted by three masked ICE agents. They take him out of a side door into a waiting minivan.

Dozens descended on the courthouse as video of the arrests circulated around the city. They held forth with bullhorns, chanting, “Immigrants are welcome here,” and “When immigrants right are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

Multiple vehicles honked in support as protesters continued flowing in, holding signs that read, “I don’t believe in walls” and “Donald Trump’s got to go.”

Hearings scheduled for the afternoon were subsequently cancelled, according to court security guards and attorneys, due to security concerns.

At around 1:30 p.m. two men holding a stack of documents under their arms walked out the building. One of the men said the judge had cancelled his hearing, and those of at least other four others.

The man, a Colombian national, has been in the country for two years. He migrated over fears of persecution as a result of his sexual identity, and is seeking asylum. “I’m so afraid of going back. I fear for my life,” he said.

“I’m really happy to see this kind of support here,” he added, looking at the crowd.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the immigration court in Concord had also been shut down by protesters.

Tuesday’s arrests continued a pattern over the last week of ICE agents picking people up after their hearings and loading them into vans for deportations.

Mission Local attended immigration hearings for both men arrested in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, and additionally confirmed with an attorney at the courthouse that both detainees were immigrants who had just had hearings within.

This is the latest deportation arrest in San Francisco, where ICE agents last week took 20 people into custody and flew them into detention centers as far away as Texas and Arizona. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the last two days, railing against the immigration agency.

Francisco Ugarte, who manages the Public Defender’s Office immigrant unit, objected to the presence of ICE agents at immigration court. “There are few things more antithetical to democracy than using police power to disrupt courthouses.”