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by\u00a0MARGARET KADIFA<\/a><\/strong> August 28, 2025 (MissioinLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Tall](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/sansome-building-now-780x520.jpg\")
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Help grow our newsroom<\/strong>, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate today!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday morning, a young woman from Colombia dialed in remotely for her asylum hearing in San Francisco immigration court, using the court\u2019s web-conferencing application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The judge that day, Patrick O\u2019Brien, wanted her in the courtroom in person. He didn\u2019t mince words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood morning, ma\u2019am,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be sitting in a courtroom right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter<\/strong> below.Sign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGood morning, your honor,\u201d the woman replied, in Spanish through a court interpreter. \u201cYes, your honor, that\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know that\u2019s right,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI\u2019m going to reschedule your hearing for later this morning. I\u2019m going to give you a chance to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid arrest, some asylum seekers are submitting written requests to the court to appear remotely<\/a>. The immigration judge decides whether to grant those requests, and other judges<\/a> in San Francisco grant them regularly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was unclear whether the Colombian woman submitted such a request. Regardless, O\u2019Brien rescheduled her 8:30 a.m. hearing for 11:30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she arrived in court at 630 Sansome St., her fears were realized: A Department of Homeland Security attorney moved<\/a> to dismiss her case, a sign of impending arrest even though O\u2019Brien did not grant the motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She pleaded with O\u2019Brien. \u201cI have tried as best as I can to follow the laws of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll I can do is give you time to respond to the department\u2019s motion,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlease, I cannot go back to my country,\u201d she said. She started to cry. \u201cI cannot go back to my country.\u201d She added: \u201cI am here because I want to do things right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI believe you, ma\u2019am,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. But \u201cthere\u2019s only so much I can do for you at this point.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDoes this mean I won\u2019t be leaving this place anymore?\u201d The woman asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Brien tried to clarify: \u201cDo you mean this building?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s likely you\u2019re going to spend some time here,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. People arrested at immigration court are typically processed in holding cells on the sixth floor of 630 Sansome St<\/a>., where there is an ICE field office. Then they are transferred to longer-term detention facilities, unless they can secure legal help to get released from detention in another way<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure enough, when the woman left the courtroom, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were just down the hall, blocking the elevators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman was one of six people arrested by ICE on Thursday morning in what has become a routine maneuver: A DHS attorney moves to dismiss asylum-seekers\u2019 cases, a legal tactic<\/a> the Trump administration is using to fast-track people out of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The arrests have both confused and terrified people who have a legal right to claim asylum in the United States and are complying with the law by showing up to court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Colombian woman\u2019s case was the second time that morning someone had tried to call into court. Just minutes before her call, a man dialed in. When O\u2019Brien asked why he was not there in person, he said: \u201cBecause of fear of being arrested. I would like to apologize.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Brien also asked that man to come in person that day. The man never did show up. If asylum-seekers miss a court hearing, they can be deported from the United States as a consequence. Just before noon, O\u2019Brien ordered him removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The confusion and fear is evident in court most days. One woman whose case the Trump administration lawyer moved to dismiss had moved to Las Vegas and presumably traveled all the way back to San Francisco for court that morning. She wanted the court to move her court hearings to Nevada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThings are going to get complicated for you very quickly,\u201d O\u2019Brien said to the woman. \u201cI\u2019m not sure you\u2019re going to have any hearings in Nevada.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n In two other women\u2019s cases, even though Homeland Security did not move to dismiss either case, a scuffle was audible in the hallway after both walked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mission Local <\/em>then witnessed ICE officers arresting one of those two women as she cried \u201cabogado, abogado\u201d (lawyer in Spanish). When Mission Local <\/em>asked the ICE officers why that woman was taken, given that Homeland Security had not moved to dismiss her case, one of the officers said they might have the wrong person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ICE officers carry sheets of paper with what appear to be black and white photos and the names of the people they are told to arrest after court. Mission Local <\/em>saw two ICE officers riffling through their papers. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t her,\u201d one muttered to the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A few minutes later, ICE officers reappeared with the woman who they had taken. They let her go. She smiled back at them, relieved, then bolted toward the elevators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One by one, as other asylum-seekers left the courtroom, ICE officers checked their papers trying to identify them as they walked by. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One visibly pregnant woman from Haiti avoided arrest, the first person Mission Local<\/em> has heard of a person being able to leave the courthouse after Homeland Security moved to dismiss their case. It wasn\u2019t clear if it was the temporary protected status, or the fact that the woman was pregnant, that kept her from being detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another woman, just 20, almost made it into an elevator before an officer said to his colleagues: \u201cWhat about her?\u201d She was quickly taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That same morning, in addition to the six people arrested at immigration court, ICE also arrested seven people<\/a> at an apartment building in SoMa, said Milli Atkinson, an immigration specialist with the Bar Association of San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That number of people arrested at once out of a neighborhood in San Francisco is concerning, said State Sen. Scott Wiener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike in Los Angeles, where ICE officers have regularly raided workplaces, the Bay Area has mostly not seen mass arrests<\/a> in neighborhoods, though ICE did arrest seven people<\/a> on Aug. 12 at a house in Oakland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo when I saw this video, my heart dropped,\u201d Wiener said, referencing footage<\/a> of the arrest, \u201cto see secret police thugs in a San Francisco neighborhood, grabbing people from an apartment building.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned,\u201d Wiener added, \u201cthat we\u2019re going to see more masked ICE activity in San Francisco and in the Bay Area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’re a small, independent, nonprofit newsroom<\/strong> that works hard to bring you news you can’t get elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2025, we have a lofty goal: 5,000 donors by the end of the year \u2014 more than double the number we had last year. We are 20 percent of the way there: Donate today and help us reach our goal!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate!<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n margaret@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m covering immigration. My background includes stints at The Economist in print and podcasting as well as reporting from The Houston Chronicle and elsewhere.More by Margaret Kadifa<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Six asylum-seekers arrested at S.F. immigration court Thursday. by\u00a0MARGARET KADIFA August 28, 2025 (MissioinLocal.org) Read Mission Local often? Help grow our newsroom, joining the hundreds of San Franciscans who support us by giving below. Donate today! On Thursday morning, a young woman from Colombia dialed in remotely for her asylum hearing… Continue reading ![\"Mission](\"https:\/\/newspack-missionlocal.s3.amazonaws.com\/mission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/mission-local-logo-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMORE ON IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT<\/mark><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nTrump admin. fires S.F. immigration judge with high asylum rate<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFeds charge ICE protester with destroying property, assault in S.F.<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nICE pepper sprays protesters and press at S.F. immigration court<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMARGARET KADIFA<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n