Six people were arrested Friday morning at immigration court in San Francisco — the most yet in one day from a single judge’s docket, said Milli Atkinson, an immigration specialist with the Bar Association of San Francisco.
They included one man who, afraid of arrest, asked and was granted an order to self-deport that morning.
Nevertheless, ICE officers swarmed around him outside the courtroom, ignoring two attorneys who repeatedly said the man no longer had an immigration case, was holding a self-removal order granted by the judge and would be leaving the country voluntarily.
All six men were in court that morning for routine hearings related to their asylum cases. About 20 people crowded into the courtroom Friday morning for these hearings, many of whom were families with young children. Every one of those families appeared to leave without being arrested. Every single adult in court without a child — six men — was arrested.
As has become routine in San Francisco, in all six cases, the attorney representing the Department of Homeland Security moved to dismiss each case.
This is a novel tactic that the Trump administration is using to place asylum-seekers in a process called expedited removal, which fast-tracks them out of the country, often without the opportunity to see an immigration judge again.
When one asylum-seeker asked why his case was now being dismissed, the Homeland Security attorney responded with what has also become a routine script: “The department has different priorities and policies right now.”
“I understand,” the man said.
In the five cases not including the man who decided to self-deport, the judge gave the asylum-seekers time to respond in writing. That should have allowed them to leave the courtroom and return home.
Instead, as has also become routine, ICE officers swarmed them right outside the door. Many of the ICE officers Friday morning were masked. One wore a jacket that said “POLICE ICE” in all capital letters.
After the first two arrests, one asylum seeker, from Venezuela, clearly frightened he would be detained, too, asked for voluntary removal to leave the country.
“I don’t want to be arrested,” he said. “I want to go voluntarily.”
Park responded that if he did leave voluntarily, he would lose his right to claim asylum. “Are you sure you want to do that?” Park said.
“If I won’t be arrested, and they will let me leave, yes.”
“I cannot guarantee the department will not arrest you, sir,” Park said.
The man chose to give up his asylum case anyway — the second time Mission Local has seen someone in court give up their asylum cases because they are afraid of arrest.
The man waited more than an hour for his order from the judge, showing that he had agreed to leave the country. ICE officers lurked outside the door the entire time. When he finally did walk out, holding the signed order, it was futile. Officers immediately arrested him.
It was the second time in two days that ICE officers had arrested someone, despite unusual circumstances, as the Trump administration is pressuring ICE to reach an arrest quota of 3,000 per day.
On Thursday, in a nearby courtroom, also at 630 Sansome St., a different judge said that he was concerned about the possible mental impairment of one man whose case the Department of Homeland Security moved to dismiss.
“It’s obvious to me that there are competency issues,” the judge, Patrick O’Brien, said in court, citing the fact that the man had been muttering to himself throughout the morning and was unable to even say his own address.
In that case, the lawyer with the Department of Homeland Security offered to continue the case, essentially scheduling a new hearing rather than immediately moving to dismiss.
Moments later, Mission Local saw the man being arrested outside of the courtroom anyway.
ICE’s presence outside of asylum hearings often disrupts the inside of the courtroom.
Mission Local has never seen ICE officers enter the courtroom. But officers arrest people immediately outside, even if that person is with an attorney and is trying to get to the nearby room dedicated for attorneys to meet with clients.
So, lawyers with the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Attorney of the Day program, who give free legal advice to people at their hearings, are now huddling in the back of the courtroom. Their voices carry across the court, sometimes making it harder for the judge to oversee hearings.
On Friday, Judge Park dialed in remotely to court, leaving his clerk to enforce rules around silence. It was an impossible task. That day’s Attorney of the Day refused to leave the courtroom with the men, because they would be arrested before she could speak to them, she told the clerk.
San Francisco has immigration courts in two buildings, at 100 Montgomery St. and at 630 Sansome St. In recent weeks, protesters have gathered outside of 100 Montgomery St., trying to block ICE vans transporting immigrants who were arrested at that court to 630 Sansome St., which also has an ICE field office and is where most migrants in San Francisco are processed before being sent to longer-term detention.
But, at 630 Sansome St., ICE can arrest asylum seekers in the hallway and whisk them onto another floor to be processed, without the asylum seekers ever having to leave the building — and without the same sort of publicity that would come from an arrest at 100 Montgomery St.
The masked thugs are back..masked like our local thugs..too afraid to show their faces because either they are breaking some laws or afraid of retribution. Germany 1936..go to the libraries while they are still open or even have books and check it out..Germany 1936.
Yes indeed!
As things are going now, they are bound to get worse.
Fortunately, unlike his fascist predecessor in Germany, our President Trump lacks a firm, broad-based public constituency to support him.
His insincere bluster increasingly fools only the most stupid among us. He is despised and distrusted practically everywhere.
Even his loopy MAGA movement is splitting over renewed questions arising over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
And aren’t we getting annoyed with the tedious “reality show” about the on-and-off relationship between world’s richest man and the world’s “most powerful man”, Roy Cohn’s acolyte?
(Meanwhile the rest of the wealthiest 1% are becoming more concerned about Trump’s reliability. They are scurrying for cover– busily fortifying their distant hideaways.)
If people truly understood the corner Trump is in, we could summon the wisdom and resolve to unite and put him behind bars where he deserves to be!
It wouldn’t be easy. But it is doable.
Robert: I’m a loopy crazy MAGA woman who coukd care less about Epstein files or your Leftist nonsense. Prez Trump is trying to clean up Bidens mess. You do better at writing fiction than facts.
They’re wearing badges, vests that say “Police” – they’re obviously law enforcement.
I don’t really care if they’re masked, especially if it helps protect them from the cartels or from being doxxed.
We should be naming the lawyers with the Department of Homeland Security who are purposefully dropping cases so these people will get arrested.
Lana: why do you wish ill on the DHS lawyers? They are only doing the job they were hired to ddo.Whu not focus on keeping our country safe, worry about USA citizens first, & let immigrants come here with proper visa
Ve vas chust doink our jobs!
I voted for this.
How’s the remodel coming along?
Where is the ACLU? Where are our local officials defending these men? Tell me the guy with the gray ponytail isn’t Proud Boy! Illegal, inhumane, criminal, NEEDS TO STOP NOW!
Unlike L.A.’s upstanding mayor, Lurie is nowhere to be found.
Go make your own country great, stay there and fight for your rights.
Our government allowed tens of millions of illegals across the border gave them a 7 year court date flew them around the country put them up in luxury hotels while Americans slept on the street allowed them to commit crimes and hurt Americans and get out with no cash bail. Deport them all. It’s sickening that the media has turned enforcing the law into a crime.
I asked a question before did anybody have a criminal record?
They’re here illegally. If you are a citizen of another country and you want to legally visit the US, you have to get a visa. If you want to work here, you have to get a work visa.
There’s a long line of people waiting to be approved for US visas. These folks jumped the line.
Those people wouldn’t be here if there were no jobs..get it? do you see maga white/black dudes working the fields in California? nope..they want 30$ an hour because they are so experimented! they invented hot water, remember? first in line to complain about illegal immigration but it comes down to pick up a shovel, no one in sight.
go around the world and you will find Americans working under the table as well…Prague to start with!
According to the American Indian movement, you are also an illegal so pack your bags, i guess.