Tag Archives: Northern California

San Francisco Chronicle: ICE arrests of people with no criminal convictions have surged in Northern California

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As it has nationwide, ICE is arresting far more suspected immigration violators this summer than before

ICE arrests in Northern California have surged this summer, a Chronicle analysis of deportation data shows. That’s in keeping with national trends.

The Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), claimed on Friday that they are “cleaning up the streets,” targeting what they continued to call the “WORST OF THE WORST” — including “illegal alien pedophiles, sex offenders, and violent thugs.”

But the numbers tell a more complicated story.

Since the beginning of 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested roughly 2,640 people in its San Francisco “area of responsibility” — a 123% increase compared to the final seven months of the Biden administration. The pace picked up dramatically in June and July.

That area spans a large portion of California, from Kern County northward, and also includes Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan. The Chronicle’s analysis focused only on arrests made within California.

Notably, under the Trump administration, arrests of people without criminal convictions have risen sharply. Many of those taken into custody have only pending criminal charges — or none at all. In June, about 58% of arrests involved individuals with no prior convictions. That figure dipped slightly to 56% in July, but just a few months earlier, the numbers were far lower: In December, before President Donald Trump took office, only 10% of arrests involved people without a criminal conviction.

Among those without a conviction, ICE has arrested a large number of individuals whose only suspected violation is entering the country illegally or overstaying their visa. Although administration officials often call these undocumented immigrants “criminals,” being in the U.S. without legal status is a civil violation, not a crime. 

Arrests of convicted criminals are also up, though not as sharply. Those convictions varied widely — from serious and violent crimes like child sexual assault, homicide, and drug trafficking, to lesser charges such as traffic violations and low-level misdemeanors.

ICE officers raided a home in East Oakland on Tuesday and detained at least six people, including a minor and a person with a severe disability, according to an immigration attorney. In June, Oakland police confirmed to the Chronicle that ICE alerted them of its activity, but ICE did not provide additional details. 

Also, for the first time in the Bay Area, ICE detained two U.S. citizens during a protest on Aug. 8, outside the agency’s San Francisco field office at 630 Sansome St. Aliya Karmali, an Oakland immigration attorney, told Mission Local that she hasn’t seen “ICE arresting [U.S. citizen] protestors in the Bay since entering the legal field nearly 20 years ago.”

The picture is similar nationwide. National data from the Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University indicates that the number of people detained by ICE — excluding those arrested by Customs and Border Protection — saw a 178% increase between Jan. 26 and July 13. 

Since the beginning of 2025, ICE arrests of people with no criminal convictions has skyrocketed, with a 370% increase from the end of January to mid-July. In June, ICE held more people for immigration violations than for pending charges for the first time — a trend that continued into July.  

Reports indicate that ICE has been targeting workers in mostly Latino neighborhoods and on jobsites — sometimes based on vague tips from people claiming they saw undocumented immigrants, but often with no clear reason at all. It has also arrested thousands of people in public places. 

Though the administration views the increased immigration enforcement as necessary for public safety or border security, many believe the arrests are fueling fear, separating families, disrupting labor markets and local economies, and doing little to actually solve the country’s broader immigration problems.

“It seems like they’re just arresting people they think might be in the country without status and amenable to deportation,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, in a June Reuters story.

ICE arrests of people with no criminal convictions have surged in Northern California
As it has nationwide, ICE is arresting far more suspected immigration violators this summer than before.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ice-arrests-deport-data-20818148.php

NBC News: Gavin Newsom locks horns with Trump in a politically defining moment

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Newsom’s 2028 presidential aspirations hang in the balance as the eyes of the nation are on California’s clash with immigration authorities.

The battle between the president and the governor of the country’s largest state instantly turned Newsom into the face of resistance to President Donald Trump’s expansive interpretation of the authorities of his office and mass-deportation campaign. Newsom, who is a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has been taking heavy criticism from within his own party over his efforts — in part through his new podcast — to cast himself in the role of conciliator.

Newsom delivered an address Tuesday night that aimed squarely at Trump and was clearly intended for a national audience.

“This isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles,” he said. “When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commander the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived.”

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Newsom has also been mounting his own messaging offensive, including on X, where he posted what appeared to be photos of troops crowded on a floor, apparently attempting to rest.

“You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep. Here they are — being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another. If anyone is treating our troops disrespectfully, it is you @realDonaldTrump,” Newsom said on X.

On Sunday, Newsom chided Trump “border czar” Tom Homan, saying in an MSNBC interview: “Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”

Late Monday, Newsom sat for a “Pod Save America” podcast recording in which he cast Trump’s actions as unconstitutional and said some of those assigned to Los Angeles — in his view, unnecessarily — were pried away from fentanyl investigations, and potentially from border operations, for “this theatrical display of toughness by a president of the United States who is unhinged.”

By Tuesday morning, Newsom accused Trump and his top White House deportation architect Stephen Miller of sheltering insurrectionists.

“The only people defending insurrectionists are you and @realDonaldTrump. Or, are we pretending like you didn’t pardon 1500 of them?”

Gavin Newsom locks horns with Trump in a politically defining moment
Newsom’s 2028 presidential aspirations hang in the balance as the eyes of the nation are on California’s clash with immigration authorities.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna211813

SF Gate: ICE stormed SF court to arrest 4 asylum seekers, denounced as unlawful

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Four asylum seekers were detained by federal agents on Tuesday at San Francisco Immigration Court, a move the Department of Homeland Security has portrayed as part of a broader return to “the rule of law” but that immigration attorneys have called unconstitutional and unprecedented in U.S. history. 

According to the San Francisco Bar Association, the individuals were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in two separate sweeps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, while attending hearings to claim asylum. All four had pending asylum applications.

“It’s a clear violation of the Constitution and due process rights,” Milli Atkinson, an immigration attorney with the SF Bar Association’s Attorney of the Day program, told SFGATE. Association members were at the courthouse when ICE swept in during the morning and were advocating for one of the detainees.

Atkinson added that ICE had already determined at the time of arrest that each individual should pursue asylum before a judge – a legal process outlined by Congress. She argued that the agency is now attempting to reverse course by claiming a change in circumstances, a justification she described as unfounded.

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Under federal law, those eligible for asylum are permitted to stay in the U.S. while their applications are reviewed by an immigration judge. Atkinson said Tuesday’s arrests short-circuited that process. 

ICE stormed SF court to arrest 4 asylum seekers, denounced as unlawful

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/asylum-seekers-arrested-ice-san-francisco-20349387.php

Meeting between King Donald and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

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A report on a recent meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, by a WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, someone who was present in the room quoted below…

From a WH Reporter,

“ I’ve covered a lot of Donald Trump press conferences over the years. I’ve seen him lie, deflect, and embarrass himself in countless ways. But what I just witnessed in the Oval Office may have been the most off-the-rails, unhinged display yet.

Trump sat down with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — a serious figure there to talk about security and alliance unity — but Trump wasn’t interested in that. No, Trump used the opportunity to fantasize about annexing Canada. He actually said, “Canada only works as a state,” and gushed about how the U.S. would look on a map if we just erased the border and took Canada as our own. This wasn’t satire. This wasn’t a joke. This was the president rambling about absorbing another sovereign nation — while the NATO secretary general sat there watching this clown show unfold.

And it didn’t stop there. Trump started pushing the idea of conquering Greenland too, saying NATO might need to get involved in helping the U.S. take it over — as if it’s a game of Risk. He literally said we “need it for international security” and tried to rope NATO into his imperial fever dream. The look on Rutte’s face said it all.

Then, Trump pivoted to his usual bigotry. Instead of talking about defense cooperation or global security, Trump bragged about how he uses transgender people as political pawns to rile up his base before elections — saying Republicans should “bring it up a week before the election” to win votes. In other words, he openly admitted he sees cruelty and manufactured culture war nonsense as a campaign strategy. Despicable.

When asked about American small businesses hurting from tariffs, Trump did what he always does: lie and bluster. “You’re going to be so much richer,” he said. Meanwhile, Medicaid is being gutted, Social Security is under threat, and Trump’s billionaire cronies are cheering as the safety net burns.

Oh, and then Trump suggested we start sending drug dealers to the Netherlands — yes, you read that right — in a bizarre attempt at humor that landed more like a diplomatic insult, especially considering the NATO secretary general used to be the prime minister of the Netherlands.

He kept rambling about how the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada, said the European Union is “very nasty,” claimed we can’t sell cars in Europe (not true), and then told an utterly deranged story about how he “invaded Los Angeles” to turn on the water — another lie pulled from his fantasyland. What actually happened was that he diverted water from Northern California, destroying farmland and hurting his own voters in the process.

To top it off, he said our allies shouldn’t worry about Putin, brushing off any concerns about Russian aggression with a shrug.

Let me be blunt: This is not normal. This is not politics-as-usual. This is a dangerous, unstable person with authoritarian fantasies, spewing nonsense in front of our closest allies while the world watches.”

Keep speaking up. Don’t accept any of this as normal.

Ben Meiselas

Claudia Scholand
A report on a recent meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, by a WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, someone who was present in the room quoted below…
From a WH Reporter, “ I’ve covered a…

https://www.facebook.com/claudia.scholand/posts/10165155546228345