The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday supporting the sanctuary city policy, serving largely as a symbolic rejection of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders regarding immigration.
The resolution, a legally nonbinding document, reaffirms the city’s “commitment to uphold the city’s long standing sanctuary city ordinance,” which generally prohibits city employees from working with federal law enforcement on immigration matters.
The policy has been around since 1989 and is intended to encourage undocumented immigrants to cooperate with law enforcement and other government officials without fearing deportation. Local law enforcement have said they will contact federal officials if an undocumented immigrant is involved in a serious crime.
At a rally on Tuesday, a wide range of elected officials, including Mayor Daniel Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, and Police Chief Bill Scott, appeared in a show of force against the president’s immigration policies.
“We are here with our immigrant neighbors,” said Mission District Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who introduced the resolution. “We will be here whether you are a tech CEO, a tech worker, a student, a janitor … no matter your status, you deserve to feel safe, and that is exactly what sanctuary is about.”
The resolution comes as fears have rippled across the city’s immigrant communities over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that may ramp up under a White House policy.
Last week, the Department of Justice issued a memo that was seen as a warning to sanctuary cities. The memo told federal prosecutors to investigate state or local officials who they believe are interfering with Trump’s immigration orders, saying they could face criminal charges.
Union officials confirmed Tuesday that ICE agents visited multiple buildings in San Francisco last week where janitors from SEIU Local 87 were working.
“Fear does not take ahold of us,” said Susana Rojas, a member of the Latino Task Force, during the rally. Rojas was one of the first to respond to Friday’s discovery of the ICE raids in downtown.
“We fight, we organize, and we make sure that we protect those who are most vulnerable,” she said. “It is all of our duty, from the most vulnerable to the most privileged. We all can do together, united, we stand united.”
Other unsubstantiated reports of immigration officials in San Francisco have sparked panic and caused the city’s transit agency last week to warn its bus drivers about law enforcement officials boarding their vehicles.
Experts tell The Standard that under Trump, ICE agents may try to use more aggressive methods during operations such as workplace raids and use firearms during the sweeps.
The president’s flurry of executive orders after his inauguration last week are already being challenged in court. A directive to end birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the Constitution, was immediately blocked by a federal court judge after an onslaught of lawsuits that included California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Bonta has indicated he is also looking to potentially sue over an executive order from Trump that seeks to use the military to enforce immigration laws.