San Francisco’s public officials stood united in opposition to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on irregular migration over the southern border, speaking forcefully against the policy at a press conference on the front steps of City Hall on Tuesday. Later in the afternoon, the city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a statement reaffirming previous promises not to allow the use of municipal agencies and assets in the deportation of undocumented migrants.
The display of solidarity comes amid rumors and revelations about accelerated immigration enforcement actions in the city, as well as questions over whether the city should cooperate with federal authorities concerning migrants who commit serious crimes like drug dealing.
On Jan. 23, the San Francisco Unified School District advised parents of students using the 29 bus to go to school and other stakeholders that a Visitacion Valley Middle School student reported being interrogated on the bus by an officer who asked, ” Where were they from?” The following day, SFUSD superintendent Maria Su confirmed that federal officers were not involved in the incident. The following day, labor leaders announced that immigration agents showed up at two downtown office buildings but were turned away.
The San Francisco field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not confirm the visits but did confirm the Jan. 23 arrest in Sacramento by their office of a man from Guatemala who had entered the country illegally and committed child sex crimes. On Jan. 27, the national office of that agency announced that they had arrested almost 1,200 people for deportation the previous day but that nearly half of them did not have any criminal records.
Labor and nonprofit leaders, led by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 87 president Olga Miranda and San Francisco Labor Council executive director Kim Tavaglione, set the tone for the Jan. 28 press conference, with Miranda noting in opening remarks, “It’s a good day in San Francisco to show our strength, our power, and not panic, right?”
Labor and nonprofit leaders used the event to showcase services available to immigrants in vulnerable situations, urging them to rely on mainstream news and official sources for information, not social media.
Later in the day, April Verette, SEIU national president, was more blunt.
“We are determined, we are defiant … We are not downtrodden. What we are is dead-ass committed to standing up against hate, against bigotry, and against the chaos that is being sown across our country,” she told attendees.
Then came a long list of the city’s elected and appointed leaders who stood up to speak, including City Attorney David Chiu, the designated point man in any legal fight with Washington:
“For me, as the first kid in my family born here in this United States, for so many of us here, San Franciscans and Californians who are either immigrants or children of immigrants — This is why a day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, my office was part of the first filing of a lawsuit challenging his executive order to end birthright citizenship because he is doing things that are unconstitutional,” Chiu told the crowd. “Eight years ago, when Trump first came in office, he came after San Francisco, he tried to cut off federal funding because we are a sanctuary city .…This is not a fight any of us relish. Let me be clear: we are not bringing this fight, but if he chooses to violate the rule of law, we will meet him in court.”
“I stand here as a partner in making sure that our immigrant communities know that San Francisco’s leadership stands with them,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the crowd. ‘As the daughter of a father from El Salvador, who I didn’t get to be raised with in part because he wasn’t a citizen here, I fully know what it feels like to have your family separated based on where you are a citizen. So when I do my work every day to make sure not only do we keep immigrant communities safe, but that they feel safe enough to report the crimes that are happening to them — that is my job.”
“What we are is committed to standing up against hate, against bigotry, and against the chaos that is being sown across our country”
Jenkins was not the only leader in San Francisco’s criminal justice system who spoke at the event. Police Chief Bill Scott, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, and Public Defender Mano Raju also spoke.
Mayor Daniel Lurie stopped by about halfway through the 90-minute event to offer his support.
“I know there is uncertainty in here throughout our immigrant communities right now,” Lurie told the crowd. “I’ve always said that public safety is my first priority. That means everyone in our city should feel comfortable interacting with local law enforcement and accessing city services. For decades, we have had policies that do that. These policies make us all safer. And you have my commitment to uphold them … And know that I and everyone here will continue working to ensure San Francisco remains a safe and welcoming home for all families, no matter where you come from.”
Newly elected District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder, whose district is the center of the city’s Latine community, noted that all 10 of her colleagues cosponsored her resolution reaffirming the city’s commitment to its sanctuary ordinance, passed in 1989, that prohibits city resources from being used for immigration enforcement except where expressly required by state or federal law. The board passed the resolution unanimously later that afternoon.
In addition to Fielder, every other member of the Board of Supervisors spoke in support at the press conference, including District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who in 2023 sought to amend the sanctuary law to exempt fentanyl dealers from its protections, against strong opposition. The sanctuary law already excludes those accused of violent crimes, such as murder, rape and arson.
“For those who look at sanctuary as an ideological issue, I want to just remind everybody about the important principles that underlie it. The federal government is responsible for immigration, not local governments. Who said that? The founding fathers said it. Where did they say it in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, and how long has it been there? Since 1791,” Dorsey said. “I’m proud to stand with my colleagues, policymakers, and law enforcement professionals to do everything we can to protect the public safety of San Franciscans, irrespective of their citizenship status. No human being is illegal … although we disagree on some things, we completely agree in our support for sanctuary for our immigrant community and our determination to protect San Francisco as a sanctuary city.”
Lurie’s pit stop at the event was between other appearances around the city promoting his fentanyl crisis emergency ordinance, which cleared the supervisor’s budget committee on Wednesday, albeit with friendly amendments. The tensions of reconciling the desire for a fair migration policy with the need to deal with fentanyl dealers, many of whom are undocumented migrants, remain in the background. When we asked Dorsey whether the united front put on Tuesday ruled out any efforts to amend the ordinance, he said sheepishly, “We’ll see.”
