Three asylum-seekers were arrested Friday directly after court hearings at San Francisco immigration court, continuing a weeks-long pattern of federal agents waiting just outside courtrooms and arresting people as they step into the halls.
Mission Local witnessed all three arrests, which took place at 630 Sansome St., where an ICE field office and several courtrooms are housed. The first was at about 8:40 a.m., when a woman, surrounded by people who appeared to be ICE agents, was handcuffed in the hallway outside of the courtroom.
The second and third arrests took place later that morning, before noon. In both cases, asylum seekers had barely stepped outside the courtroom when about five federal agents, some of whom clearly wore Immigration and Customs Enforcement badges, arrested them. They were swarmed and directed through a nearby door.
In all three cases, a Department of Homeland Security attorney had moved to dismiss the asylum seekers’ petition, a novel tactic the Trump administration is using to arrest immigrants and put them on a fast-track to deportations. In at least two of the three cases, the judge did not accept the attorneys’ motions.
Instead, the judge gave the asylum-seeker time to respond in writing, which should have given them protections from deportation. But, as has happened routinely in San Francisco, ICE agents arrested them anyway.
They are likely to be taken to detention centers in California or even outside the state. There are no centers near San Francisco, so for most people arrested at court, it means travel to far-flung parts of the state like the Golden State Annex in McFarland, or Mesa Verde in Bakersfield.
Friday’s arrests are the latest at increasingly-tense courtrooms in San Francisco: ICE has made more than 30 arrests after court hearings since May 27, and on Friday, agents, at least one of whom was armed, walked up and down the hallways outside the courtrooms, waiting to make arrests.
Those inside the courtroom are more fearful than ever: One woman, who arrived at court with a young child, started crying in the back of the courtroom. When the judge asked her how she was, she told him in Spanish through an interpreter, “Nervous.”
While immigration attorneys giving free legal advice have typically conferred with asylum seekers in a private room, on Friday and, at a different courtroom at 630 Sansome St. on July 10, they huddled in the back of the courtrooms instead.
The attorneys knew that if they stepped out into the halls, even en route to give legal advice, the asylum seekers would be detained immediately.
These attorneys, dispatched to court by the Bar Association of San Francisco under the “Attorney of the Day Program,” also collect contact information of relatives, so they can be told that their family member may be detained.
But even that simple communication is facing increasing scrutiny from court security.
On Friday, a security guard came into the courtroom and tried to get an asylum seeker — whose case DHS had moved to dismiss and who was about to be arrested — to put away his phone while in court as he spoke with the immigration attorney. The attorney pushed back and stood between the guard and the asylum seeker.
“He’s about to be arrested outside,” she said. The asylum seeker would not be able to contact his attorney out in the hall, she said, “because he’s about to be arrested.”
The security guard relented. But he stood just a few feet from the asylum seeker, occasionally looking over his shoulder, as the man whispered to his lawyer and continued to text.
Electronics are not allowed in court, though the rule has not always been strictly enforced. Mission Local has observed security guards cracking down, and on Friday a guard told two court observers to put their phones away.
In a different courtroom at 630 Sansome St. on July 10, Mission Local saw a security guard raise his voice at a member of the public who was observing court, for having her phone out. The judge in that courtroom, Patrick O’Brien, told the security guard to let him handle it.
I have never been more ashamed of my country than these days.
An absolute travesty of justice. Where is the mayor, the D.A., our state representatives—I mean physically? Why are they not down at the courthouse as this happens?
I really appreciate the information on the three people
However, do you have any information about how many people have been detained with criminal records? It would be interesting to see the contrast.
I was there in the courtroom and watched this unfold precisely as reported. These courts are little more than shams when a judge assigns a date for an asylum hearing and the respondent is nevertheless immediately detained. These are people who fear return to their home country for reasons they state in their formally filed applications, and they are not offered the option of removal to a different country. The attorney trying to ensure that the respondents had representation and contact with their families or friends was downright harassed.
Great job doing the immigration stories
Good. Glad to see our tax dollars put to use carrying out the will of the people.
This is what Americans voted for.