Immigrant advocates in California decry Trump tactics to detain asylum seekers

SAN FRANCISCO - Immigrant groups and attorneys are decrying a new tactic by the Trump administration to detain people while waiting for an asylum hearing.

Speakers, including San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju and Lisa Knox, executive director of the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, demanded that immigrants get their due process by qualified judges. 

"When these fundamental due process rights are eroded for the most vulnerable, it's not long before they're threatened for everyone else," Raju said at a Wednesday news conference in front of San Francisco's immigration court. "Attorneys with the Immigration Unit of the San Francisco Public Defender's Office say it's not clear why the four people arrested yesterday were targeted by plainclothes ICE agents."

Raju said that at least one of the people arrested in San Francisco was waiting for a hearing for an asylum case and a similar asylum-related arrest happened last week across the country in New York City, when a public school student was detained after appearing for his asylum hearing.

Speaking afterward, Knox reminded people that they have the right to oppose any attempt by the government to dismiss their case.

"They have the right to talk to an attorney for help," Knowx said. "If you have an upcoming court date, and you're worried about what might happen, we have help for you." 

Speakers received cheers and claps as activists carried signs that read "Turn up the heat. Melt ICE," and "Hands off immigrants." 

At least 1 asylum seeker detained

According to Faith in Action East Bay, ICE agents have conducted operations at immigration courts across the country, including in San Francisco, Concord and Sacramento. 

ICE arrested multiple people at the San Francisco and Concord immigration courts as recently as Tuesday, the group said.

During hearings, Department of Homeland Security attorneys tried to dismiss people’s immigration cases in order to help ICE agents waiting outside, according to Faith in Action organizers. They added that DHS is putting up "misleading" posters encouraging people to "self-deport" in immigration courts.

KTVU witnessed an unmarked white van come to the side entrance of the building at 100 Montgomery St. in San Francisco on Tuesday while what appeared to be plain-clothes immigration officers arrested a man and put him in the van.

The van was being driven by a man in a Department of Homeland Security uniform. 

‘Fear tactic’ 

Luis Angel Reyes Savalza, who works in the San Francisco Public Defender Immigration Unit, called what's happening a "fear tactic." 

"They're doing this to instill fear in immigrant communities," he said.

He added that it is unclear who the federal agents are targeting, because the people who are in court proceedings already, are applying for relief in the United States lawfully.

"What the administration wants is for people to stop coming to court," he said. "If people stop coming to court, they get removed in their absence. And once they have a removal order, they are low-hanging fruit for the administration to arrest and deport."

Savalza said "it should alarm everyone" in the country that ICE agents are going to courthouses to deprive people access to due process.

"I've been an immigration attorney for 10 years, and I've never seen an ICE arrest in immigration court," he said. "These are rights people have under the law, under the Constitution that this administration is trying to trample upon."

Reversing Biden

The DHS said in a statement that anyone who entered the country illegally within the past two years is subject for expedited removal.

"Secretary Noem is reversing Biden’s catch and release policy that allowed millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be let loose on American streets. This administration is once again implementing the rule of law," a spokesperson wrote.

Trump won on a campaign promise of deporting undocumented immigrants and while there was no one at the San Francisco rally in support of his methods, he does have some support in the Bay Area, across the country and online.

Someone wrote on KTVU's YouTube page that they "love Trump" and "ice ice (sic) baby!" 

David Levine, a professor at UC College of the Law, told KTVU that it is unclear if what the federal government is doing is legal or not. He said he fully expected this to be challenged in court. 

But he did say that what is happening – getting detained while showing up to the courthouse to get your asylum paperwork and status in order – seems "terribly unfair." 

Across the country

Across the United States in immigration courts from New York to Seattle to Miami, Homeland Security officials last week were seen ramping up enforcement actions in what appears to be a coordinated dragnet testing out new legal levers deployed by President Donald Trump’s administration to carry out mass arrests.

Not much was publicly revealed about the San Francisco Bay Area asylum seekers.

But at least in one Miami case, a 28-year-old Colombian migrant with no criminal record, was detained by federal agents after he attended a hearing in immigration court for what he thought would be a quick check-in.

Three U.S. immigration officials told the Associated Press that government attorneys were given the order to start dismissing cases when they showed up for work Monday, knowing full well that federal agents would then have a free hand to arrest those same individuals as soon as they stepped out of the courtroom. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared losing their jobs.

IF YOU NEED HELP, people can contact these Rapid Response Networks: Contra Costa hotline 925-900-5151 San Francisco hotline 415-200-1548.

KTVU's Crystal Bailey contributed to this report. 

ImmigrationSan FranciscoConcord