Immigrant rights advocates rally against ICE courthouse arrests in San Francisco

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Immigrant rights advocates rallied Wednesday outside San Francisco’s immigration court to condemn the Trump administration’s latest deportation tactics and implore asylum-seekers to keep their court dates despite recent arrests.

Arrests were once a rarity in or near immigration courts, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week showed up at courthouses across the country to arrest migrants who appeared for routine court proceedings. The move has rattled immigrant communities already feeling pressure from the Republican administration to leave.

Eight people were arrested in the San Francisco and Contra Costa County courthouses Tuesday, advocates said. At least one person was arrested last week.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Most of the people in Concord courthouse are asylum-seekers, said Ali Saidi, director of Stand Together Contra Costa, an immigration hotline and rapid response team in the county east of San Francisco.

It was unclear who was being targeted and why, but speakers at the rally said agents at both courts had specific names and were not arresting people at random. They did not have details of the people who were arrested.

“It seems to be targeted arrests that they could have done at other locations,” Saidi said, “but chose to do it at the court in order to — it appears — make people afraid to come to court.”

Speakers implored immigrants to keep their court dates, because missing a hearing would make them subject to a removal order and deportation. They said lawyers are available, as are volunteers, to accompany them to court.