Latest news with #LuisAngelReyesSavalza
San Francisco Chronicle
15-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Very scared' immigrants continue to answer ICE summons as protesters target S.F. building
Dozens of protesters returned Sunday to a nondescript, two-story white building in an alleyway in San Francisco's South of Market where Bay Area residents working to legalize their immigration status were summoned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this weekend. Activists suspected a trap and brought immigration attorneys to counsel confused immigrants and their families who feared violating the terms of their conditional release if they failed to show and arrest if they did appear. So far, the office has remained locked and closed, as protesters chanted and banged drums at the Tehama Street building. 'People were very scared and very panicked,' said Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, a San Francisco deputy public defender. 'It's very irregular to receive a last minute message to report on a weekend. In my 10 years of practicing, I've never heard of reporting on a weekend.' Savalza and other attorneys, most volunteering their time, said Saturday they assisted more than 50 participants in the Alternatives to Detention or Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. About 7.6 million immigrants participate in the program, which allows them to live at home as their cases are processed, according to ICE figures from October. Four program participants who received similar text messages were arrested after reporting to the ISAP office in Fresno on Saturday, Savalza said. 'We have a very strong reason to believe that our mobilization and support stopped ICE from detaining people at the office yesterday,' Sanika Mahajan, an organizer from Mission Action, said Sunday. ICE officials did not immediately return a request for comment Sunday. The mysterious weekend reporting requests coincided with massive No Kings Day marches and rallies in San Francisco and nationwide in response to a growing opposition movement to President Donald Trump as he pushes to deport immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. The text messages, sent in Spanish, told recipients to report to the Tehama Street facility during business hours Saturday or Sunday. 'If you do not present yourself according to instructions it will be considered an infraction,' the messages read. Savalza said attorneys have counseled immigrants who went to the facility to inform their reporting officer and to verify their arrival with a photo at the location. Immigrants continued to show up Sunday, though it remained locked in the morning. Protesters circled in front of the front door, chanting and holding signs, such as 'I.C.E. Out the Bay.' Anti-ICE graffiti remained on the walls from the day before. In the past, ICE protests have focused on more high-profile buildings such as the field office on Sansome Street and the San Francisco Immigration Court on Montgomery Street.
CBS News
28-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
Protests held over ICE arrests at San Francisco, Sacramento immigration courthouses
Immigrant rights advocates rallied at immigration courthouses in San Francisco and Sacramento on Wednesday morning to show their outrage over the Trump administration's arrests of people seeking asylum. The organizations said at the dual protests that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' arrests at immigration courts are an attempt to bypass the legal system and an attack on due process rights. Last week, rights groups were at immigration courts on Montgomery Street in San Francisco's downtown, at the Capitol Mall in Sacramento, and in Concord, warning immigrants that authorities were dismissing their cases to have ICE agents arrest them outside the courthouses. Immigration rights advocates rally at San Francisco Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street, May 28, 2025. KPIX The operation by ICE to place certain immigrants into an expedited removal process after their arrest began last week at immigration courthouses across the country. The process fast-tracks their deportation without a court hearing, bypassing the huge backlog of pending cases. Rights advocates said multiple people at the San Francisco and Concord immigration courts as recently as Tuesday. In addition, posters have been placed at courthouses encouraging people to "self-deport" with misleading information that can jeopardize people's legal situation. "I've been an immigration attorney for 10 years, and I have never seen an ICE arrest in immigration court," said Luis Angel Reyes Savalza from the San Francisco Public Defender's Office. "It is seen as something that is looked down upon by immigration judges who know that this chills the attendance of clients in court, witnesses who are then afraid to come to court. These are rights that people have under the law, under the constitution that this administration and ICE agents are trying to trample upon." Last week, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said in a statement that the Trump administration was acting because of Biden administration policies to release migrants with notices to appear in immigration court, instead of trying to deport them quickly through expedited removal.
