A 3-year-old was among those detained during route checks at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Immigration rights advocates say at least 15 people were arrested, including young children.
Why It Matters
This Article Includes
Several inmates, including parents and young children, slept overnight at the ICE field office at 630 Sansome Street, according to Priya Patel, a supervising attorney with the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. According to advocates, the group comprised at least four youngsters and was made up of San Francisco, Contra Costa, and San Mateo County residents.
Individuals with pending immigration issues are often compelled to report icing officers at least once a year while their cases are processed via a frequently backlogged court system. Newsweek has reported on multiple examples of green card holders and undocumented immigrants being arrested at immigration appointments at ICE field offices across the United States.
What To Know
According to advocates from the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ) and Mission Action, several of the inmates were still in the middle of their immigration hearings and had not received final deportation orders. Others were following ICE supervision obligations as part of ongoing judicial proceedings.
Several of those detained have since been transported to detention facilities, such as the Golden State Annex in McFarland, California, and the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, which houses women and children.
Advocates also expressed concern that children jailed with fathers may experience family separation because there are no facilities designed to hold fathers and children.
According to immigration attorneys and family members, some undocumented immigrants were detained and held in the basement of the building, some of whom were apparently held overnight.
Democratic lawmakers are outraged by the action.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi unleashed a harsh attack on Trump’s immigration officers following the event.
“It is stupid that ICE is now arresting families and children for obeying the law. The detained immigrants were diligently cooperating with law enforcement and complying with the law by reporting to their regularly scheduled check-in with ICE,” Pelosi said.
These families were going about their normal lives, and if the goal of ICE is to guarantee that immigration laws and processes are implemented and followed, these arrests contradict and are inconsistent with that mandate.
Protesters gathered outside the ICE field office on Wednesday evening to voice their disapproval of the recent detentions.