The department is still tallying arrest numbers and will provide a full count by the end of the day, Lew said.
Lurie acknowledged a heightened level of “fear and anxiety in our communities” and pledged to “always protect your right to make your voices heard peacefully.” But he reiterated his administration’s zero-tolerance approach to property destruction.
Among those briefly detained by police were two student journalists with UC Berkeley’s Daily Californian, even though they said they identified themselves to police and were wearing visible press credentials.
“Police in full battle fatigues have surrounded us. We have repeatedly identified ourselves as journalists and are not allowed to leave,” Aarya Mukherjee, one of the journalists, posted on the social media platform X.
The mass demonstration on Monday was at least the fourth protest in two days in San Francisco, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last week arrested more than 20 immigrants in the city, including about 15 who had come for check-in appointments at an ICE office on Wednesday.
It comes as the Trump administration has begun dramatically ramping up immigration raids, sparking tumultuous protests in multiple cities throughout the state and country.
In response to unrest over the weekend in Los Angeles, President Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops into the city on Saturday without Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent, arguing that doing so was necessary to protect ICE and other federal officers from “violent mobs.” The Pentagon on Monday also mobilized more than 700 Marines in California to respond to the protests in L.A.
The deployment, which appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, was roundly condemned by Newsom and scores of other state and local leaders, who accused the president of inflaming tensions and sowing chaos. After California sued the administration, Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday asked a federal court to impose immediate restrictions on the troops in L.A.
Lew tried to distance the San Francisco Police Department from any actions taken by federal agents, underscoring that police strictly adhere to the city’s longstanding sanctuary policy.
“I want to tell our immigrant communities that we support you and we are committed to building trust with you,” he said, encouraging anyone who witnesses a crime or is a victim of one to come forward to police “without fear.”
“Immigration enforcement is the federal government’s job,” Lew added. “It is not the responsibility of SFPD.”
