ICE Activity in San Francisco: What We Know and What You Can Do

Immigration arrests in the Bay Area are drawing more attention this week, and San Francisco is at the center of it. A video of a masked arrest on a residential street in the SoMa neighborhood spread quickly, protesters filled the steps of City Hall, and immigration attorneys across the region say they are seeing a change in how and where arrests happen. Here is what has been reported so far, what the city is doing, and what you can do if you are worried about yourself or someone you love.

What happened in SoMa

On Monday morning, security camera video showed federal immigration agents, some of them masked, arresting a man outside a residential building in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood. In the footage, one plainclothes agent appears to be carrying a handgun, and the man can be heard saying he is a U.S. citizen as he is taken into custody. His mother told reporters he has lived in the United States since he was six years old.

ICE has given a different account. The agency says the man is a 51-year-old citizen of El Salvador who was deported before and has a prior California conviction for voluntary manslaughter, and it alleges ties to a street gang without giving details. ICE’s statement did not address the gun seen in the video. San Francisco’s Public Defender’s Office condemned the use of a gun on a man walking down the street and said it was still working to understand the facts of the case. These accounts have not been reconciled, and more details about his case are likely to emerge.

Why attorneys say arrests are changing

The arrest did not happen in isolation. Five Bay Area immigration attorneys told Mission Local that arrests across the region have become more aggressive in recent weeks. Rapid response hotlines, which are community phone lines that take reports of immigration arrests, say reports have gone up since the weekend. Attorneys say that most arrests in the area used to happen at immigration courthouses and at ICE check-ins, which are scheduled appointments where people report to immigration officers. Now they are seeing more arrests at homes, workplaces, and during car stops, along with more force during those arrests.

Mission Local verified six immigration arrests across the Bay Area in a single week. Four involved violent tactics, and two of the people arrested ended up in the hospital. Public defenders also reported seeing two ICE agents in the lobby of the San Francisco jail, which raises questions about the city’s sanctuary policies, the local rules that limit how city agencies work with federal immigration enforcement.

Not everyone agrees that this amounts to a surge, and the most recent federal data only goes through July, so it is hard to compare this week with earlier ones. But the longer trend points in the same direction. A Mission Local analysis of federal data found that immigration arrests in major Bay Area cities rose 81 percent between July 2025 and July 2026.

What San Francisco is doing

At a City Hall rally the day after the arrest, Supervisor Jackie Fielder announced a proposed $1.8 million emergency funding measure for immigrant legal defense. It would pay for habeas petitions, groups that accompany people to ICE appointments, and the city’s rapid response hotline. A habeas petition is an emergency request asking a federal judge to review whether someone’s detention is lawful, and it can lead to release within hours. The Board of Supervisors waived its usual waiting period, so a vote could come as early as November 4, though the full process is expected to take a couple of months.

The Bay Area Habeas Network, a group of nine legal nonprofits and public defender offices, says it has filed 49 petitions covering 57 people since May 1, and that more than 90 percent of those people were ordered released right away. Attorneys say speed matters, because ICE can move a detained person out of Northern California before a petition is filed, which can take the case out of the local court’s reach.

What you can do right now

The first step is knowing who to call. Every Bay Area county has a rapid response hotline, a phone line run by local community organizations that tracks and responds to immigration arrests. In San Francisco, the city lists the SF Rapid Response hotline on its official website as the number to use: 415-200-1548.

Here is how it can help. If someone has been detained by ICE in San Francisco, calling the line is how you can get them rapid legal assistance. That matters because speed makes a difference: attorneys say ICE can move a person out of Northern California before a lawyer files an emergency petition. If you see what looks like ICE activity near you, calling lets the network know what is happening in the neighborhood. And if you have an immigration court hearing coming up and are afraid to go alone, the line can also help you ask for someone to accompany you.

The line is often answered by one person at a time, so if it is busy, keep calling back. If you live in another Bay Area county, you have your own local number. Alameda County is 510-241-4011, Contra Costa County is 925-900-5151, Marin County is 415-991-4545, and Santa Clara County is 408-290-1144.

There is no single statewide number. If you live somewhere else in California, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice keeps a directory of local rapid response hotlines organized by region.

Save the number for your county in your phone today, and share it with someone you trust. If something happens, the people around you will know who to call.

A hotline is for the moment of an emergency. Preparing before one happens, like knowing your options and having a plan for your family, is something you can do now. Fear is a natural response to what many families are seeing and hearing right now, and having a plan, and a lawyer you can call, can make a real difference.

Sources: Mission Local on attorneys warning of violent ICE arrests, Mission Local on the $1.8 million funding proposal, Mission Local on the Bay Area Habeas Network, ABC7 News, NBC Bay Area, KTVU, the City and County of San Francisco, and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.