Faith groups chain themselves outside ICE building in San Francisco
Faith leaders lock arms outside 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco. Dec. 16, 2025 Photo: Bay Resistance
SAN FRANCISCO - More than 100 people from Bay Area faith communities locked arms outside ICE’s San Francisco Field Office Tuesday morning in an effort that they described as trying to "stop ICE from kidnapping community members" at their immigration check-ins.
Activists chained themselves to the two main entrances of the building about 6:30 a.m. The offices open at 8 a.m.
Protesters were still out at 11 a.m., when SkyFox flew overhead. Some activists were standing in the middle of the street holding a large "ICE Out of CA" banner. Other protesters carried and signs, holding them outside the facility.
There did not appear to be any conflict between the protesters and law enforcement.
A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately comment on the situation.
San Francisco police said that they were sent out to the 400 block of Washington Street in the Financial District regarding some "First Amendment" activity.
Police said they were monitoring the situation and no one had been arrested.
According to the group, ICE arrested over 120 immigrants at the San Francisco ICE Field Office and San Francisco immigration court between May and October.
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"We can no longer stand by and watch as our neighbors are disappeared, ripped away from their families and communities," associate minister at Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church, Rev. Rodney Lemery, said in a statement sent to KTVU. "Across all of our religions, we are taught to love our neighbors, and not sit idly by in the face of injustice. We have a moral obligation to stop the harm that our government is perpetuating by abducting and disappearing mothers, fathers, spouses and siblings."
Rev. Deborah Lee, co-executive director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, added in a statement:
"It is unconscionable that people complying with court appointments, check-ins or having their routine Green Card and citizenship interviews are being duped into coming into this building, and ripped from their families and sent from here to the hell of immigration detention."
Meanwhile in Dublin, protesters planned to rally Tuesday evening before the city council meeting, where councilmembers are poised to pass a resolution that opposes turning the now-closed women's prison – FCI Dublin – into any kind of correctional facility in the future, like reopening it as another prison or ICE detention center.
The resolution is largely symbolic. The city council has really no say about what the federal government can do with the land, which sits adjacent to Santa Rita Jail.
But it does put on record that the council is formally on record opposing such a proposal.