{"id":45749,"date":"2025-12-24T12:29:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45749"},"modified":"2025-12-24T12:29:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:29:45","slug":"no-sign-ice-is-improving-conditions-at-s-f-immigrant-holding-cells-attorneys-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/24\/no-sign-ice-is-improving-conditions-at-s-f-immigrant-holding-cells-attorneys-say\/","title":{"rendered":"No sign ICE is improving conditions at S.F. immigrant holding cells, attorneys say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In an emergency meeting between lawyers, DHS, and federal judge: few answers and many questions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aby\u00a0Sage R\u00edos Mace<\/a><\/strong> December 22, 2025 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
A security guard exits the San Francisco immigration court on Sansome St. on Aug 22, 2025. Photo by Mariana Garcia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a month after a federal court issued a preliminary injunction<\/a> ordering the Department of Justice to immediately provide mattresses, blankets, medical care and other basic necessities to immigrants detained at its at 630 Sansome St.<\/a> in San Francisco, there is little sign that ICE is complying with the order, according to the legal group that won the injunction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have blocked repeated attempts to assess the well-being<\/a> of those detained at the ICE facility, which takes in immigrants arrested<\/a> across the Bay Area and further afield, according to lead attorney Marissa Hatton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, for example, Department of Homeland Security attorney Doug Johns invited Hatton and her co-counsel to visit 630 Sansome<\/a> and \u201csee what is going on for ourselves,\u201d said co-counsel Lo Darian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They did, and Mission Local<\/em> witnessed ICE agents denying Hatton and Darien entry to the building on Dec. 18 even after they presented identification and showed them email correspondence with Johns inviting them up to the fifth floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hatton and other attorneys with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in the San Francisco Bay Area described this encounter and other attempts in an emergency Zoom meeting held Monday morning with federal lawyers and Judge Casey Pitts of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Pitts\u2019 Nov. 25 order<\/a> found an \u201cestablished likelihood\u201d that the \u201cconditions at 630 Sansome are unconstitutionally punitive in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Back<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He ordered ICE to give detained immigrants beds, bedding, medical care, hygiene products and clean clothes, among other things. He told the agency it must make temperatures inside the holding cells tolerable \u2014 those inside said they were \u201cfreezing\u201d \u2014 and to provide medicine and dim the lights at night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, since the injunction, Hatton said, she and her colleagues \u201chave been stonewalled on getting any information on whether ICE has made strides toward compliance.\u201d They said the same at an earlier, Dec. 10 court hearing<\/a> with Pitts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hatton has heard reports that ICE simply shifted its temporary holding operations from the sixth floor to the fifth floor of 630 Sansome in an apparent bid to get around the order. She said she has also heard immigrants held there are being moved to an undisclosed location in Stockton that is not providing them with basic necessities either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"12\/15-12\/26\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Immigration attorneys were previously able to speak to their clients over phones in a visitation room on the sixth floor, though the lawsuit alleged those phones were often broken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, attorneys cannot even rely on faulty phones. The fifth floor does not have phones, Hatton said, so lawyers must depend on \u201cthe goodness of ICE agent\u2019s hearts\u201d to communicate with their clients, should the agents choose to lend out their personal phones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Monday\u2019s meeting, Judge Pitts reminded the government that the preliminary injunction applies to any<\/em> place where people are being held by ICE, not just the sixth floor. Changing locations was the same as \u201cavoiding compliance,\u201d and therefore a violation of the court order, Pitts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"12\/19<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Detainees are being held on the fifth floor, Johns acknowledged, though he referred to the area as \u201cnon-detained office space,\u201d instead of a holding cell. That, Hatton said, \u201cis a semantic game that ICE is playing\u201d to get around the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Pitts asked who is conducting medical screenings for detainees, Johns replied that he did not know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this, Pitts raised an eyebrow. \u201cThe preliminary injunction is in place, correct?\u201d he asked Johns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"11\/24<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Johns did not reply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, no one is providing medical screenings, then?\u201d Pitts continued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, Johns did not respond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pitts did not make a ruling on Monday, but did ask both groups to stay in communication to fulfill the injunction. He pledged to meet on any day as needed, including Christmas, if ICE does not make progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attorneys may yet take him up on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can continue to confer, but, to the extent that we are hearing about violation, there will be a follow-up,\u201d Hatton\u2019s co-counsel Jordan Wells added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If need be, he said that they would call for a meeting on Dec. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Latest on Immigration enforcement<\/mark><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Judge orders end to ICE courthouse arrests across Northern California, for now <\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"S.F.<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Hundreds of asylum-seekers may be sent to Honduras, Ecuador, Uganda following S.F. immigration ruling<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sage R\u00edos Mace<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

sage@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m covering immigration for Mission Local and got my start in journalism with El Tecolote. Most recently, I completed a long-term investigation for El Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in San Juan, PR and I am excited to see where journalism takes me next. Off the clock, I can be found rollerblading through Golden Gate Park or reading under the trees with my cat, Mano.More by Sage R\u00edos Mace<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an emergency meeting between lawyers, DHS, and federal judge: few answers and many questions by\u00a0Sage R\u00edos Mace December 22, 2025 (MissionLocal.org) Nearly a month after a federal court issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Department of Justice to immediately provide mattresses, blankets, medical care and other basic necessities to immigrants detained… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45750,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45749\/revisions\/45750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}