by MARGARET KADIFA, GUSTAVO HERNANDEZ and JOE ESKENAZI
June 15, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)
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On the morning after many thousands of anti-Trump, anti-ICE protesters streamed through San Francisco’s streets and millions did the same in hundreds of other cities, a small group of demonstrators were back, early, for a second go.
More than 100 people were this morning staking out a building at 478 Tehama St. in SoMa. It houses a detention alternative program of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement— ICE. In an irregular move, a number of immigrants purportedly received short notice to report here over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday appointments are a rarity and activists surmised it portended arrests and potential deportation actions. Protesters showed up early on Saturday and, again, today.
Jean Moses, 75, Oakland, was here yesterday too. “What’s happened to the immigrant families hurts me,” she said. “It’s so appalling that we would treat anybody like that.”
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Dozens of immigrants have been arrested in the past week and change by federal agents. In a catch-22, many were mandated to show up at check-ins or court appearances where failure to appear could lead to arrest — but were arrested when they showed.
Keith Pavlik, 68, of San Francisco, was not here yesterday. But he’s here now. “I feel that this is a great injustice,” he said, “and I want to stand against it.” He’ll stay today for as long as he can: “I have really bad arthritis, so an hour and a half is probably my max.”
Both Moses and Pavlik were standing at what appears to be the back entrance of the building, on Howard Street. Most protesters, perhaps 100 of them, are walking in a large oval at the other entrance, on Tehama Street. Perhaps 50 or so more are playing instruments or offering legal advice to the handful of immigrants present who appear to have gotten the ICE check-in notifications.
While posted hours for the building are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., it didn’t open yesterday. Lawyers present suggested to immigrants that they take a selfie on-site to prove they complied with the check-in order, upload it into the ICE app and then leave. Ghassan Shamieh, an immigration attorney on scene Sunday, is offering similar advice today. Immigrants have been told to text ICE via its app that they are at the building and take a photo as evidence. Mission Local observed at least one person doing just this.
Protesters arrived at 7 a.m. on Sunday and no one has yet seen any indication that anyone is within the building.
One difference from yesterday: At some point after Saturday morning, someone has tagged the building with slogans like “ICE get out” and “Bella ciao”
This is a developing story and will be updated as possible
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GUSTAVO HERNANDEZ
Gustavo Hernandez is a freelance photojournalist and videographer currently living in Excelsior District. He graduated in Fall 2024 with a double major in Journalism (Photojournalism) and BECA (Broadcasting and Electronic Communications Arts) from San Francisco State University. You can periodically catch him dodging potholes on his scooter and actively eating pho.More by Gustavo Hernandez
JOE ESKENAZI
Managing Editor/Columnist. Joe was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.
“Your humble narrator” was a writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015, and a senior editor at San Francisco Magazine from 2015 to 2017. You may also have read his work in the Guardian (U.S. and U.K.); San Francisco Public Press; San Francisco Chronicle; San Francisco Examiner; Dallas Morning News; and elsewhere.
He resides in the Excelsior with his wife and three (!) kids, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.
The Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists named Eskenazi the 2019 Journalist of the Year.More by Joe Eskenazi
