After violent clashes last week between U.S. immigration officers and protesters led to an officer drawing his gun and a woman being flung from the hood of a speeding federal vehicle, San Francisco police face a thorny question: to intervene or not to intervene.
One San Francisco Police Department deputy chief has weighed in, committing to more aggressively defend federal officers in confrontations with the public. But few in city leadership are willing to discuss how far police might go in blocking people from protesting the arrest of undocumented immigrants — or whether these actions could violate First and Fourth Amendment rights and sanctuary city policies.
The surge in immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump has fanned out across California and has been most pronounced in Los Angeles, where raids have met fierce resistance and led to rioting. In response, the Los Angeles Police Department issued public guidelines on how its officers intend to engage with masked federal immigration officers, while Mayor Karen Bass has personally confronted federal agents and criticized the Trump administration.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, by contrast, appears to be taking a wait — and wait, and wait — and see approach. In interviews, he has repeated the talking point that he will keep San Franciscans “safe” without going into detail or mentioning Trump directly.
Lurie declined to comment. His spokesperson Charles Lutvak cited the mayor’s efforts to fund legal efforts in defending immigrants. Part of that funding was restored after The Standard reported that Lurie was cutting the budget for immigrant services.
The issue of how San Francisco intends to deal with an escalation in immigration enforcement, and corresponding protests, has gained greater attention after SFPD Deputy Chief Derrick Lew made surprising comments last week at a town hall in the Castro. According to a report by Mission Local, Lew said the department is focused on keeping the public safe and allowing for peaceful protests, but officers will equally prioritize the welfare of agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies.
“We can’t just sit by and watch our fellow law enforcement agent or officer get hurt,” Lew reportedly said.
The comments raised the hackles of Supervisor Jackie Fielder and immigrant rights advocates, who have called on Lurie to take a more forceful stance in support of the immigrant community. Fielder, who represents the Mission, responded in a fiery fashion Monday, accusing ICE of being a “fascist agency” and demanding answers on local law enforcement activities in a letter of inquiry sent to Lurie, the controller’s office, and the SFPD and Sheriff’s Department. She noted that ICE has the manpower and legal authority to make arrests on its own if necessary.
“It’s baffling that SFPD leadership would equate unarmed protestors with Trump’s armed ICE agents,” Fielder said in a statement. “They can protect themselves with their pepper spray, their guns, their vehicles, and their armor, as they did so readily last Tuesday.”
She added, “This is not a law enforcement agency upholding public safety; it is a fascist operation that is violating court orders and the rule of law to stoke fear and sow chaos.”
Fielder demanded more information on how police intend to engage with protesters and ICE agents in accordance with local laws. She also questioned law enforcement agencies’ reported practice of sharing data from license-plate readers with federal authorities. An investigation by The Standard found that police in San Francisco and Oakland appear to have violated laws around sharing information with federal agencies.
ICE officials issued a statement Monday accusing protesters in San Francisco of attacking and obstructing federal officers July 8 outside of the federal immigration court on Sansome Street. Federal officials said the violence is part of a trend of assaults on ICE officers, including an alleged coordinated attack on an ICE facility in Texas that led to an officer being shot.
“These violent individuals have zero respect for the rule of law and casually violate it,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security wrote in an email.
Evan Sernoffsky, director of communications for the SFPD, said Lew’s town hall comments did not run afoul of local policies and state law, which forbid police from working with ICE on immigration-related enforcement. Sources have told The Standard that Lew is a strong candidate to take over the SFPD after the recent resignation of Chief Bill Scott. Paul Yep is currently serving as interim chief.
Police officers would have intervened in last week’s chaos, Sernoffsky said, but none arrived until after the violent clashes. This account was disputed by Mission Local, which reported that officers were present at the time of the incidents.
Sernoffsky said officers intervening in physical confrontations should not be seen as assisting ICE in the same way that making immigration-related arrests or providing information to the federal agency would violate local laws.
“If any person in the city comes under a violent attack, it’s the police department’s responsibility to protect public safety,” Sernoffsky said. “It has nothing to do with ICE or anybody else — that is uniform for everybody.”
Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who helped moderate last week’s town hall, said San Francisco’s leaders might be wise to consider following in the footsteps of those in Los Angeles, who have issued clear guidance on how police intend to comply with federal immigration actions and how to confirm that masked officers are, in fact, genuine law enforcement officers.
“I think this is a hard question, and the police need to do what they can to maintain order and protect San Franciscans,” Mandelman said. “How they respond to ICE officers and protesters raises challenging questions.”