ICE Arrests at Bay Area Immigration Courts Are Meant to Stoke Fear, Advocates Say

Imagines, a bank robber is afraid of being caught.  An embezzler is afraid of being found out.  Should a murder be afraid of being caught and sent to prison?  Of course, people who brek the law MUST be afraid of being captured and suffer the consequences of their violation of the law.  Illegal aliens are no different.  Whether they are at home, at work, at a football game or a court, they should be afraid of being caught.

“Last week, a man was arrested in Concord’s immigration courthouse after his case was thrown out by a judge, but Knox said that on Tuesday, some of those arrested still had active cases after judges rejected the attorneys’ motions to dismiss them.

Immigration advocates speaking to a crowd of at least 100 people gathered outside the downtown San Francisco immigration court facility Wednesday said the arrests and deportations are designed to stoke fear and undermine immigrants’ rights.

“The rights of immigrant children, of our immigrant communities here in San Francisco and Sacramento and Concord, are constantly shifting. They’re trying to keep us on our back foot,” said Fernando Antunez, a social worker with the nonprofit Legal Services for Children.

They are here illegally.  Let them stay in custody or be deported.  Of course, they could “volunteer” for deportation and end the emotional fear of being here illegally.

ICE Arrests at Bay Area Immigration Courts Are Meant to Stoke Fear, Advocates Say

Katie DeBenedetti, KQED,  5/28/25    https://www.kqed.org/news/12041810/ice-arrests-at-bay-area-immigration-courts-are-meant-to-stoke-fear-advocates-say

Immigration advocates gathered across Northern California on Wednesday morning to condemn what they called the unprecedented and unconstitutional arrests of asylum seekers in courthouses.

According to Lisa Knox, the co-executive director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, at least 10 people have been arrested in San Francisco, Sacramento and Concord this week. Some of the immigrants were taken into custody despite having open asylum cases, a tactic that ICE officials have not previously used in the Bay Area, Knox said.

“The Constitution guarantees due process,” she told KQED. “When you’re facing something as life-changing as deportation, you have a right to a process, you have the right to fight that.”

Four of the arrests, which took place Tuesday in the halls of San Francisco’s immigration court on Montgomery Street, came after attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security asked judges to reject the individuals’ requests for asylum.

Last week, a man was arrested in Concord’s immigration courthouse after his case was thrown out by a judge, but Knox said that on Tuesday, some of those arrested still had active cases after judges rejected the attorneys’ motions to dismiss them.

Immigration advocates speaking to a crowd of at least 100 people gathered outside the downtown San Francisco immigration court facility Wednesday said the arrests and deportations are designed to stoke fear and undermine immigrants’ rights.

“The rights of immigrant children, of our immigrant communities here in San Francisco and Sacramento and Concord, are constantly shifting. They’re trying to keep us on our back foot,” said Fernando Antunez, a social worker with the nonprofit Legal Services for Children.

Immigration enforcement officials were seen at San Francisco’s downtown immigration court every day last week, and on at least one day at similar facilities in Concord and Sacramento.

Similar ICE presence and enforcement actions have been reported at immigration courts across the country, including in Phoenix and New York.

But on Wednesday, with the crowd gathered outside, ICE officials were not in the San Francisco court building, said Sanika Mahajan, the director of community engagement and organizing at Mission Action.

“There are dozens of us here in the streets, there are dozens more upstairs accompanying our immigrants to their court appointments, and ICE is nowhere to be found,” she told the crowd at the press conference. “That is what happens when we show our people power.”

The ICE enforcement efforts are part of a DHS campaign to increase deportations under President Trump, who has pledged to deport at least 1 million undocumented immigrants during the first year of his term.

DHS said in a statement that it is “implementing the rule of law,” which allows for the expedited deportation of immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally less than two years ago.

Historically, the expedited deportation policy has been used mostly to deport people who have just crossed the border or are found within 100 miles of it. However, the Trump administration plans to expand the use of the policy to any person who cannot prove that they have been in the country for more than two years.

“Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge,” DHS said in its statement. “ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”

“This is part of a coordinated campaign by the Trump administration to undermine due process, to not give people their day in court,” Knox said, adding that government officials are also posting flyers on the walls of courthouses that encourage immigrants to “self-deport” and mislead them about their rights in an asylum case.

The actions are especially alarming because they are sowing panic and could prevent some immigrants from appearing for a hearing in their case, Knox said. If an asylum seeker misses a hearing, they automatically lose and can be ordered to be deported in absentia.

“People are really panicked,” Knox said. “The one place that folks thought they had to go was safe to go, now ICE is arresting people.”