Immigrant advocates on Thursday decried the detention of at least 15 people, including four children, in San Francisco the day before.
As soon as immigrant advocacy groups learned about the detentions Wednesday, they organized a rally outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in San Francisco – a different building than the immigration courts where detentions occurred last week. Attorneys spent most of the day Thursday trying to figure out exactly how many people were taken away Wednesday and where they were being held.
Watch NBC Bay Area News free wherever you are
WATCH HERE"Of these people, this included three family units – three separate groups of moms and children," immigration attorney Priya Patel said.
Immigrant advocates said the people who were detained Wednesday went inside the building for their scheduled meetings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement services.
Patel represents one of the mothers who was taken into custody. That mother has two children with her.
Patel said she learned her clients will be sent to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. It's a private facility that had been closed during the Biden administration but was recently reopened by the Trump administration.
Immigration attorneys said this is a new strategy by ICE agents.
"We are just shocked by the level of detention and the people that were targeted," said Milli Atkinson with the San Francisco Bar Association's Legal Defense Program. "We want to make sure that the families have access to resources."
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news with the Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
SIGN UP Atkinson said that will be tough to do when a client is so far away.
According to Atkinson and Patel, the people detained Wednesday had no criminal record. They were following the directions of ICE officials and immigration courts.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said his office was trying to get details on the detentions.
"We have been told by federal officials that they have alerted every county to any detainees. We have not been alerted yet," he said.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi was much more blunt in her reaction. In a prepared statement, she called the detention of families with children "stupid."
NBC Bay Area reached out to ICE for details on how many people were taken into custody Wednesday but didn't hear back by the time this story was published.
