Rumors of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention operation alarmed residents of San Francisco’s Mission District earlier this month following threats by President Donald Trump since his election to launch mass deportations of undocumented residents.
However, these murmurs about local ICE raids are baseless, said Milli Atkinson, director of the Immigrant Legal Defense Program of the San Francisco Bar Association.
“It was one individual that was arrested by ICE,” Atkinson said. “They had his name and information. We responded, and they met with an attorney, and they’re going to be represented. It wasn’t a raid or mass arrest.”

Sylve Sturm / San Francisco Public Press
San Francisco State University student Getsemani Leon Ibarra marches in the Mission to protest President Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations of undocumented residents.Atkinson said that on Jan. 10, 13 and 15, volunteers deployed to three Mission locations after receiving calls about ICE activity on the SF Rapid Response Network hotline, which is run by a coalition of 21 organizations to educate residents on their due process rights and provide legal representation to those detained by federal agents. The volunteers spoke with potential witnesses and contacted local law enforcement, and confirmed that of those possible episodes, only one ICE arrest occurred, on Jan. 15.
However, the Spanish language news outlet Peninsula 360 Press reported that “at least” three undocumented residents were detained by ICE in San Francisco on Jan. 10. The report stated that a Honduran national was the subject of the arrest, and when two of his companions attempted to intervene, they were also detained. Reporter Eric Alcocer Chávez said his reporting was based on testimony from a confidential witness who was too scared to speak publicly.
Local residents expressed heightened fears after news broke last week of border patrol agents in unmarked vehicles arresting at least 78 undocumented immigrants in Fresno and Kern counties, according to ABC7.
During a large march through the Mission protesting President Donald Trump and various right-wing policies on Saturday, rally-goers expressed angst over the possibility of ICE raids. Getsemani Leon Ibarra, a San Francisco State University student who lives in Richmond, said she had heard that ICE had been active in the Mission in recent days.
“It’s put people in fear of losing their families and getting separated,” Ibarra said.

Sylvie Sturm / San Francisco Public Press
Connie Rivera and a group of dancers perform a four-direction indigenous grounding ritual at the Jan. 18 protest march.Longtime Mission community organizer Roberto Hernandez said rumors of ramped-up ICE activity are unfounded, and speculated that there may be an attempt to spread “malicious” reports to cause panic.
“Unfortunately, it’s not the first time, and it’s happening everywhere,” Hernandez said. “It’s just being inhumane.”
Mayela Ortiz of SEIU Local 87, a janitorial union, said many members have visited the union hall expressing fear and uncertainty.

“We’re trying to inform our members of their rights, so they know what to do in case ICE goes and knocks on their doors,” Ortiz said. “We want to let them know: ‘Don’t be afraid. We’re going to get through this somehow.’”
Trump’s vow to immediately launch widespread deportations are part of a tactic meant to intimidate undocumented residents even before any action is taken, Atkinson said.
“It gets people so anxious and panicked that they leave voluntarily, or they go into the shadows,” she said. “They stop going to work. They stop sending their kids to school.”
Atkinson advised residents to remain calm and reach out to the SF Rapid Response Network.
“We want our community to feel empowered and know that they have the support of various nonprofit organizations, but also the city of San Francisco is the sanctuary city,” she said.
She urged the public not to spread rumors of ICE arrests on social media, and to reach out to the network hotline at 415-200-1548 if they witness suspected ICE activity first hand.
Angela Chan, a San Francisco public defender and member of the ICE Out of California coalition, urged local law enforcement to remember their responsibility under the San Francisco Sanctuary Ordinance to “not assist ICE with tearing apart our communities.”
Meanwhile, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu is joining a nationwide effort to stop Trump from trying to strip U.S.-born children of undocumented residents of their citizenship status. Trump’s order prohibits federal agencies from issuing citizenship documents for newborns of undocumented parents and from recognizing such documents issued by state and local governments.
On Tuesday, Chiu joined a lawsuit to block Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order, which attempts to end a right guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, and which the Supreme Court affirmed 127 years ago in a case brought by a San Franciscan named Wong Kim Ark, who was born to immigrant parents.
“As a San Franciscan born to immigrant parents, I am determined to ensure the next generation of Americans are not deprived of this constitutional right,” Chiu said.