From SF Officials, Protestors, & Anarchists: Protesting ICE in San Francisco SF. Pt I.
Resistance has ramped up in San Francisco against the Federal government's reign of ICE terror.
Began writing Thursday, June 12, 2025
The past five days have catapulted San Francisco to the next level of resistance against this authoritarian, technofascist, billionaire-driven Trump regime. From elected San Franciscan government officials to the much maligned yet self-sacrificing anarchist front, we have increased the volume on our screams of NO, on our actions of HELL NO. We are still at the beginning of our movement fighting for the future The People demand, not the one these oligarchs are trying to shove down our throats with ICE raids, and trumped of felony charges or deportation of protesters. Just this afternoon California Senator Alex Padilla, the first senator to spend a whole day working alongside farm workers, was forcibly removed from DHS’s press conference and detained. This is highly indicative of the danger we are all in. Trans people and immigrants (in particular Black and Indigenous/Latinx people) are Trump’s first targets, but we won’t be their last. As a transgender Mexican American, I viscerally feel a level of national hatred I have never imagined before. I am already on the radar of horrible bigots like Garry Tan, Christopher Rufo, and their right-wing ilk, so I guess I’ve been mentally and emotinally battle-trained for this war. At least I’m not publicly alone in resisting now and that gives me a source of inspiration I didn’t have before.
The Protesters & Anarchists
Since Trump’s inauguration and Elon Musk’s ascension as co-dictator (paused during their public spat recently), we’ve had a wide range of No King (anti-Trump)/Fuck Musk protests in SF. These have been led by various political parties and groups, all asking for peace and non-violence a their rallies. These are the protests that draw hundreds to thousands of protestors. Going to these type of protests give you a sense of solidarity that’s hard to find on your phone or in your living room. I’ve attended many of these sanctioned protests and do recommend attending, especially if you’re just dipping your toes into protesting or activism. Listen to the speeches, learn the chants, read the protest signs, the expressions of your neighbors near and far.
Sunday the 8th and Monday the 9th, we had two anti-ICE protests, small and large. Both exposed how SFPD is, in my opinion, cooperating with ICE to keep resistence ineffective.
Sunday’s protest was a small one at an ICE office downtown. I showed up and took note of all the SFPD vans parked down side streets, the SFPD motorcycles stationed a block away in the middle of the road along the perimeter. I saw SFPD’s disproportionate show of force for a rally that only attracted a couple hundred people, so I didn’t stick around for the march after the speeches were done. It turns out my assessment was correct, because SFPD ended up arresting over 150 people, six minors as well, for not dispersing when the protest was over.
Immediately the smear campaign from the mayor, SFPD and media came: these were violent anarchists, a fringe group of provocateurs. Yes, there was graffiti, some broken eggs and windows. I would hardly call these people dangerous or violent. They did not assualt one person. It was government and corporate property that was attacked, marked by paint or shattered glass.
Who again is responsible for these ICE raids, the deportations, the silencing of anti-genocide, pro-labor, pro-immigrant activists? Who has been stripping away transgender healthcare and rights? Who is enacting racial segregation again by sabotaging the Department of Education, suppressing Black, Indigenous, queer and labor history, DEI in eduction, the workplace and government, and so much more? With state violence this horrific and widespread, how are broken windows and spray paint even slightly proportional as a defense? Keep this in mind when reading about why the “violent” protesters had to be arrested for our '“safety,” as Mayor Lurie would like you to believe. With this current flavor of fascism, we’re being bulldozed backwards, reliving the segregated glory days of our racist elected officials born long before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Eventaully you’ll want to do more than spend your limited time off on a weekend or evening doing a government-sanctioned protest parade within police boundaries. Those protests do serve a purpose. They show people they are not alone. They ignite people to do more. They send a message to the world. Those protests alone though do not change the world, even locally, for long.
Once you cross the state-sanctioned boundary, maybe you’ll find yourself characterized as violent by San Francisco government after SFPD has brutulized you, and gain that intimate knowledge of how police propaganda works. Or maybe you’ll begin meeting the people who are directly being taken by ICE. Maybe you’ll realize just how real this all is.
[I paused writing here to go to another anti-ICE protest downtown. Resumed writing June 16, 2025]
The next day, Monday evening, there was an even bigger anti-ICE protest that drew in thousands. About 60 people were arrrested this time for the same reason. I am glad I attended this march throughout the Mission. I saw warm, bronze-skinned families and children standing on their balconies, leaning out their windows, waving and cheering. We waved and cheered back, showing our community, my people, that we are on their side. We do not abide by this campaign of terror against them, against us.
I am forty. My hips and feet were worn out after this march. I stopped by the same taqueria I always do by 24th St BART, picking up dinner for home. While waiting on the platform, Supervisor Mahmood walked by in his suit. He had joined the march too. We rode the same car, got off at the same Civic Center stop, and went our separate ways: the politican and the protestor.
Here’s the thing with Supervisors like Fielder and Mahmood…
Supervisors who actually have been very vocal and active in protecting immigrants: you can’t have it both ways. The government cannot protest itself. These Supervisors voted YES on the Fentanyl Emergency Ordinance, giving Billionaire-Levi-Heir Mayor Lurie more consolidated power. We’re feeling the effects of that: more policing, more criminalization of the poor, billionaire donations to SFPD for more surveillance drones, cutting Indigenous, Black, Brown, Asian, LGBTQIA+, harm reduction, immigrant and homeless communties at the knees with his proposed budget. Lies upon lies about wanting to help the homeless and being a collaborative mayor when really he’s enriching his wealthy buddies, empowering the worst people like Sam Altman, and kicking poor people in the face while they’re down.
You cannot honor SFPD, vote for more “safety” (SFPD/Sheriffs) and then tsk tsk them when they arrest protestors or skater kids en masse. You cannot take them to task for doing what the police do, exert power and violence against the people in the name of property, the wealthy elite and the State.
These politicians are human and for the vast majority of humans, it’s hard to stand up to the boss/mayor, especially a billionaire boss—especially if you want to stay in politics. The conflict of interest it too great to overcome for people, and history, recent and ancient, shows that the most powerless are sacrificed for the retention of power.
I do believe politicians like Fielder and Mahmood care about the immigrants in their communities who are being attacked. I really do. Compared to other politicians, they’ve been very vocal and active in showing so. But they undercut their own activist efforts by maintaining the status quo in government: Follow the laws. Policing = Safety. Ignore the most vulnerable. When was the last time you’ve heard these Supervisors talk at all about trans youth? During a time where trans kids are having access to their healthcare taken away, EVEN IN CALIFORNIA, are being severely bullied, villianized, and committing more suicides because of all this State violence against trans people… it’s unconscionable to not have trans rights prominantly featured in their calls for protection as well. And I’m not talking about uttering the word trans (Fielder last week), or posting a video with trans folx (Mahmood this year). I am talking about really calling out and acting up for trans youth, prominantly, persistently, continuously.
Unconscionable.
To follow…