Mayor Daniel Lurie emphasized Monday morning that the city will remain a safe place for immigrants in the lead-up to the Super Bowl.
“We have heard nothing that suggests that there will be any increase in immigration enforcement from the federal authorities,” he said.
At the same time, he said, he expects an increase in the number of federal officials in San Francisco to support law enforcement ahead of the game.
The mayor said there will be federal immigration officials present at the upcoming Super Bowl in Santa Clara, but no more than at any other Super Bowl year. He said that while the city will work with local and federal law enforcement “to ensure a coordinated public safety operation,” there would be no coordination with federal immigration enforcement.
“We will continue to uphold San Francisco’s longstanding policies that keep local law enforcement focused on keeping our city safe, not on federal immigration enforcement,” he said.
Lurie said that immigrants “should feel free to report a crime. They should feel free to come to the hospital and get services.”
Despite Lurie’s remarks, Supervisor Jackie Fielder is wary and said that rapid response networks are preparing for an increase in calls.
In October, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem reportedly said that people should not attend the Super Bowl unless they are “law-abiding Americans who love this country.”
For Fielder, those comments give her pause.
“ICE is an agency under DHS, and these agencies are unpredictable under this administration,” she said.
She says she is encouraging all people to remind themselves of their rights — such as the right to film, the right to remain silent, and the right to ask for a lawyer.
She is also encouraging her constituents to save the phone number for the San Francisco Rapid Response Network, 415-200-1548, in case of any concerns with federal immigration enforcement activity.