Bay Area Faith Communities Shut Down ICE’s San Francisco Field Office

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Over 100 people from Bay Area faith communities shut down ICE’s San Francisco Field Office at 630 Sansome Street this morning, chaining themselves across the two main entrances to stop ICE from kidnapping community members at their immigration check-ins.

Between May and October 2025, ICE arrested over 120 immigrants at the San Francisco ICE Field Office and San Francisco immigration court.

"We can no longer stand by and watch as our neighbors are disappeared, ripped away from their families and communities. Across all of our religions we are taught to love our neighbors, and not sit idly by in the face of injustice. We have a moral obligation to stop the harm that our government is perpetuating by abducting and disappearing mothers, fathers, spouses and siblings.” - Rev. Rodney Lemery, Associate Minister at Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church of Walnut Creek.

Faith leaders wore religious stolls and held signs stating “People of Faith Choose Love Over Cruelty” as they chained themselves to block two main entrances to the Sansome building. The chains symbolizing the thousands who have been kidnapped and taken away in chains to immigration detention centers. Other community members painted murals on the street that read, “Love Thy Neighbor and Disrupt Injustice.”

Since July, hundreds of volunteers from faith communities across the Bay Area have been holding daily vigil, providing resources and bearing witness, as immigrant members of the community are forced to line up for hours in the heat and rain waiting for their check-in appointments or court hearings, not knowing whether they'll be kidnapped or make it back home to their families. They provide coffee, information about rapid response legal support, and prepare people before they enter the building, making sure that their loved ones know what to do if they are taken. They’ve held families through their anguish when their loved ones go in for an immigration appointment and never return.

“It is unconscionable that people complying with court appointments, checkins or having their routine greencard and citizenship interviews are being duped into coming into this building, and ripped from their families and sent from here to the hell of immigration detention.“- Rev. Deborah Lee, Co-Executive Director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.

630 Sansome also serves as ICE’s regional headquarters. Between Jan. 20 and June 26, 2,123 people were kidnapped by ICE in what they call the San Francisco "Area of Responsibility." This area includes Northern California, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan. At least 87% of those kidnapped, or 1,847 people, were arrested in California. At least 433 of them were at some point held in detention at 630 Sansome St.

“We call on all people of faith, elected officials and members of the community to step up to stop this system of terror. Accompany our immigrant neighbors to appointments, join community ICE watch efforts, and if you can, put your body on the line to stop these injustices." – Rabbi Cat Zavis, Beyt Tikkun Synagogue.