Video: Protesters and ICE agents clash, scuffle in San Francisco

Protesters clash with law enforcement over ICE arrests

Protesters clashed with law enforcement outside the federal immigration court building in San Francisco on Tuesday. This was apparently over ICE arrests. The scene was chaotic with pushing and shoving from both sides and at one point a person climbed the hood of a vehicle that was being used to transport those who were either arrested or detained.

SAN FRANCISCO - Protesters clashed in San Francisco on Tuesday morning with ICE agents in a chaotic scene in front of the federal immigration court.

Video provided to KTVU by observers on the scene showed protesters, many in masks, getting into a scuffle with ICE agents, also wearing masks, about 11 a.m. on Montgomery Street.

Mission Local reported that the protest was over a young immigrant man in ICE custody. The specifics of that immigrant's case were not revealed.

ICE detained at least one immigrant in court on Tuesday, according to Milli Atkinson, who leads immigration defense for the San Francisco Bar Association, the San Francisco Standard and Mission Local both reported.

Protesters use words like "abducted" when ICE officers are seen detaining immigrants. Some have been showing up to immigration court regularly to prevent detentions from occurring.

ICE did not immediately respond for comment.

Federal officials say that they are only carrying out orders, detaining and deporting people who have violated the terms of their stay in the United States and only after immigration judges approve their removal processes.

Throughout the country, and in the Bay Area, in a new tactic under the Trump administration, ICE officers have been going to immigration court to detain people who have received deportation orders, or whose asylum requests are not being granted.

Several organizations have reported that ICE attorneys have been asking immigration judges to dismiss asylum cases, stripping immigrants of protections while their cases were pending.

ICE agents have then been detaining these immigrants for expedited removal, immigration attorneys have said, a process that was reserved for those arrested close to the border within two weeks of their arrival during the presidency of Joe Biden.

Oakland nonprofit wins ICE arrest case, asylum seeker freed

Oakland-based, Centro Legal de la Raza is celebrating a major legal win after securing the release of a Peruvian asylum seeker they say was unlawfully detained by ICE outside a San Francisco immigration court. Abby Sullivan Engen, immigrants? rights attorney, explains the federal judge's ruling in the Garro Pinchi vs. Noem case.

Courthouse arrests have already been challenged in court in recent weeks to some success, leading to some migrants being released from custody, including a case won by Oakland-based, Centro Legal de la Raza.

Attorney Abby Sullivan Engen said she scored a legal win after securing the release of a Peruvian asylum seeker, Frescia Antonella Garro Pinchi, who was taken into custody on July 3 by ICE officers after her court hearing.

She was taken to an immigration facility in Bakersfield, but U.S. District Court Judge Rita Lin ruled that the arrest should never have happened, and ordered that Pinchi be released until a further hearing could be held.

Meanwhile, the video shared on Tuesday with KTVU showed about two dozen people screaming, witnesses taking pictures and ICE agents pushing and shoving protesters out of the way. Some ICE agents used batons to keep protesters at bay. One video at the scene showed an ICE agent brandishing a rifle.

Many of the protesters wore keffiyeh headscarves. At one point, several protesters jumped on top of the hood of a black SUV driven by a federal agent.

The demonstrators appeared to be trying to block law enforcement from putting the detained immigrant into a van.

The driver of the van started moving with several people standing on top.

San Francisco police were also seen on site, though the department said their officers were not part of any immigration efforts. At least one San Francisco police motorcycle officer was at the scene with a mask covering his face.

KTVU inquired about the SFPD mask policy but did not immediately get that question clarified.