Two protesters were detained by federal agents and two others pepper-sprayed by security guards on Friday afternoon, during a protest outside San Francisco’s immigration court condemning the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an immigration officer in Minneapolis.
About 30 people, many of them in their 20s, had gathered outside the court at 630 Sansome St. at about 2 p.m. in a rally organized by the group Dare to Struggle. They amassed outside the courtroom doors as private security guards and Department of Homeland Security agents stood inside.
“Fuck ICE! Justice for Renee!” the protesters chanted. “It is right to rebel against ICE. It is right to rebel against this fucked up system,” said Sunjay, one of the organizers, through a megaphone, before adding: “We’re gonna try and get in the building and confront these motherfuckers head on.”
Protesters tried one entrance, found it locked, and then walked to another.
“You can’t come inside!” said an Allied Universal security guard. Several protesters who tried to enter were pushed back by agents and guards, before Amy, an 18-year-old high school student, was seized by a federal agent while still on the sidewalk. She was taken into the building. Sunjay, the organizer, then followed her in, and both were corralled by agents.
“Let them go!” the crowd shouted as the two were taken deeper into the federal building. “They dragged her inside of there!”
The crowd kept trying to enter the building after the arrest but were repeatedly pushed back by security guards yelling “Back up!” At one point, two protesters were hit by what appeared to be pepper spray.
One sat on the ground as others poured water on their face. The crowd remained outside the courthouse, chanting “Let them go!”
Later, protesters successfully entered the building through an entrance on Jackson Street by kicking at the base of a locked door. They made it a few feet into the building before being met by Department of Homeland Security agents and security guards, and turned away.
Sunjay was released from detention at around 6:30 p.m., according to organizers. Amy was later released from the Phillip Burton Federal Building in downtown. It is unclear what the pair was charged with.
Dozens of asylum-seekers have been arrested in the courtroom halls of 630 Sansome St., one of San Francisco’s two immigration courts. The court, which has been decimated after most of its judges were fired this year, is set to close by the end of 2026.
Immigrants arrested across the state and region are also taken to holding cells in the building that are allegedly “freezing” and filthy, and civil rights groups have sued to force improvements.
Gestapo at work..Remember this people” when (if) you managed to get the country back, we don’t want to hear “let’s bring people back together, make peace” and all that BS..NO more Mr nice guy..time for retributions..Anytime these people are in power it is pure chaos, the orange cult leader even said that he would go big time after his “enemies”, meaning everyone who is not crawling on their feets like the republican party is…DO the same, first take the cult leader’s name of any buildings, erase him from history, then fired all the judges, replace them with your people and go after the members of this administration like a pitbull on a poodle.Then send teams around the world to apologize and try to make it nice again. And of course put Gestapo people on trial..
Go get ’em, tiger.
Good to see the youngsters kicking it up a notch.
At this point it’s undeniable:
ICE = Trump’s Gestapo.
The mollahs in Iran are shooting their own citizens, the orange mollah in the US with his gestapo is also shooting his own people.
It’s been chilling to observe the mounting events, each more horrible than the last.
More chilling has been the complacency and accommodation with which almost the entire establishment has greeted the Trump administration’s attempt to gaslight the world while pursuing its myriad bloody crimes.
Most people are not fooled and are reacting– especially as they become aware that the fascists won’t hesitate to train crosshairs on any of us if it suits them.
Moral outrage and supplications to institutions that are deaf, blind, and dumb aren’t enough to change anything, and can most likely make things worse.
The working class can end this historic nightmare.
We must realize that Trump and his crimes are not an aberration, but the consequence of the capitalist system itself. The capitalist system is in crisis because it can no longer generate profits reliably with bourgeois democratic norms standing in the way. That is why the ruling class has embraced dictatorship. It fears our power.
To end this historic nightmare, we must promote every initiative toward advancing a strategic and comprehensive general strike against the oligarchs who stand behind Trump. It is they who promote him as a necessity to defending their ill-gotten wealth. If Trump goes tomorrow they will find a more capable and eager replacement.
The strike must be bigger than the international rally against Kings.
It must be a strike by all workers in all professions and of all nationalities.
It must be a strike that won’t fold or go home: not until reason can prevail and workers can decide themselves how the wealth they generate can equitably be divided. This would entail true democracy.
The times we are living in reminds me of how most games of Monopoly end: with the “winner” re-writing all the rules to command every last dollar and sadistically promote every pain until the board and pieces go flying.
The class that runs things today appears to believe life is like a Monopoly game with winners who deserve to win and losers who deserve to lose. That is sick. No one chooses where or to whom we are born.
We must be smarter than those who are making our world sick. We must not play their game.
“We must realize that Trump and his crimes are not an aberration, but the consequence of the capitalist system itself.”
What crimes specifically are you referring to? You never said
Wow, the big news here is that some of these protestors are under 65 years of age.
Amazing! I was walking near the protest at 24th and Mission on Saturday, which as you know is a heavily Hispanic area, and every single sign-carrying protestor I saw was an older white person.
I hope these protestors visiting San Francisco patronize the local businesses.