Just before noon, activist Lia McGeever, who went to the court building on Tuesday morning after seeing a request for support on social media, said three plainclothes ICE officers wearing masks exited the building with one immigrant in custody, then quickly shoved the person into a waiting unmarked van.
She said that activists tried to get the person’s phone number to contact their family, and others surrounded the van in an attempt to stop the vehicle, but it eventually turned the corner and drove away.
“I really thought someone was going to get run over,” she said. “It was very shocking to see, it was very emotional to see, and I don’t think it’s going to stop. I think we’re going to go on trend with the rest of the country and other parts of California, and we’re going to see more of this.”
Just after noon, dozens of protesters filed into a picket line extending around the majority of the building in an attempt to block ICE officers from exiting with people who had been detained, they said.
Both the Concord and San Francisco immigration courts shut down at 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Executive Office for Immigration Review, which conducts the court proceedings.
According to Luna Osleger-Montañez, an organizer with the We Fight Back Coalition, at least two people were arrested Tuesday at the San Francisco immigration court. More arrests were made at Concord’s facility in the East Bay.
At least six people have now been arrested at the city’s immigration court since ICE officials began appearing in the hallways of similar facilities across the state in May.
Advocates have accused ICE of trying to scare immigrants into not appearing for asylum hearings by waiting to arrest people after their hearings. If an immigrant fails to appear, they can automatically lose their case and be deported in absentia.
