A three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit just made permanent an injunction that blocks the enforcement of California's law banning masks on federal agents — basically because a state can't tell a federal agency what to do.

In a 3-0 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that California's law, SB 627, which was co-authored by state Senator Scott Wiener, likely violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, and runs afoul of Supreme Court precedent that prevents states from prosecuting federal agents acting in the course of their duties.

The law, dubbed the No Vigilantes Act, which took effect in January, bans the wearing of masks by law enforcement officers, in the interest of public safety.

The judges said that the state law "purports to override the federal government’s power to determine whether, how, and when to publicly identify its officers." And they add, "in so doing, it aims to regulate the manner and conditions under which federal agents can enforce federal law."

Despite a challenge by the Trump administration, the law had been allowed to take effect by a federal judge in Los Angeles. But CalMatters notes that it had always faced a likely hurdle in the higher courts.

Writing for the panel, Ninth Circuit Judge Mark J. Bennett writes, "We conclude that ... the No Vigilantes Act attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions. The Supremacy Clause forbids the State from enforcing such legislation."

The ruling adds, "If a state law directly regulates the conduct of the United States, it is void irrespective of whether the regulated activities are essential to federal functions or operations, and irrespective of the degree to which the state law interferes with federal functions or operations."

Bennett, a Trump appointee, was joined in the opinion by Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, an Obama appointee, and Judge Daniel P. Collins, a Trump appointee.

Pending an appeal to an 11-judge en banc panel, the law will remain blocked.

In a statement to the Chronicle, a spokesperson for Governor Gavin Newsom, Diana Crofts-Pelayo, said, "These laws shouldn’t even be necessary. We shouldn’t have unidentified, masked men terrorizing our communities."

Wiener has yet to offer a comment on the ruling. He celebrated the earlier win in federal court in February, saying, "ICE and Border Patrol are covering their faces to maximize their terror campaign and to insulate themselves from accountability. We won’t let them get away with it."

Top image: A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent patrols the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on January 28, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

• BART will be running on a limited schedule through the Transbay Tube on Sunday, April 26 as workers replace lights in the tunnel. Trains will be running once every 30 minutes through the day, and two train lines, the Red Line from Richmond to Millbrae and the Green Line from Daly City to Berryessa, won't be running at all. [Chronicle]
• A federal judge in Sacramento ruled Monday that the 36-year-old man who was shot by ICE agents on April 7 in the Central Valley, should remain in federal custody, despite his lawyer saying he was arrested on mistaken pretenses. Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez is being held because he may be a flight risk, the judge said, and he faces an assault charge for driving toward one of the agents; federal agents say he is a member of Los Angeles-based gang, and he has a tattoo to prove it. [KTVU]
• SFUSD students are getting a new set of history textbooks for the first time in two decades. [KQED]

National:

• Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stepped down from her role Monday amid multiple scandals and a misconduct investigation. She's accused, among other things, of having an affair with a member of her security team. [New York Times]
• A man open-fired Monday at a popular tourist destination north of Mexico City, the historic Teotihuacán pyramids, killing a Canadian tourist and injuring six others before turning the gun on himself. [Associated Press]
• FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over a report about his excessive drinking, which has reportedly led to unexplained absences during his tenure. [CNN]

Video:

• The audio is wonky, but this video includes a funny clip from a KPIX piece from around 1968 in which a buttoned up reporter says that the lines that used to fill the sidewalks on Broadway in North Beach to get into topless strip clubs had dwindled, and "Topless is on its way out." Plus there is some safe-for-TV footage inside the clubs themselves.

Photo by Casey Horner

A Salvadoran man who his lawyer says is a family man and day laborer who's engaged to a US citizen was shot by ICE agents in Patterson, California Tuesday, south of Tracy. His lawyer says it was a case of poor investigative work by ICE.

ICE says it was seeking Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez because he was wanted for questioning in connection with a murder in El Salvador, and because he is a member of the Los Angeles-based 18th Street Gang, or Barrio 18. In reality, his lawyer said, Hernandez was acquitted seven years ago in the El Salvador case, and is now engaged to be married to a California woman.

On Tuesday around 6:30 am, ICE agents performed a targeted traffic stop in Patterson, California, near an onramp to I-5, south of Tracy, which was captured on dashcam video from a nearby vehicle. In the video, you can see Hernandez in a black hatchback attempting to flee the scene, and an ICE officer opening fire into the driver's side window of the car. Hernandez was struck and injured in a scene reminiscent of the Minneapolis shooting of Renee Good, and his current condition is not known.

Similar to the Minneapolis shooting, ICE is saying that Hernandez "weaponized" his car and threatened the life of an ICE agent, however the video does not show the car directly threatening the armed ICE officer, but rather trying to get away from him.

As the New York Times reports, attorney Patrick Kolasinski gave a news briefing Wednesday with Hernandez's fiancee Cindy by his side. The couple has a small child together.

"He cannot possibly have a warrant out for his arrest in El Salvador," Kolasinski said at the news briefing, and he produced a document showing the 2019 acquittal. “That is a complete misstatement. And even if that wasn’t the case, that wouldn’t be an excuse to shoot somebody in the situation that he was in."

As KTVU notes, Kolanski initially told the media that the shooting was a case of mistaken identity, insisting that his client was not a member of any gang.

Kolanski says that, according to his fiancee, Hernandez was pulled over last Friday by Turlock police and agrressively questioned about a cracked windshield. The police took down Hernandez's information, and this likely led to the ICE incident, though there is currently no evidence that Turlock police contacted ICE.

Hernandez works on rehabbing fire-damaged homes, and was reportedly on his way to the Bay Area Tuesday morning for a job. He is a dual citizen of Mexico and El Salvador, and ICE says that he came to the US illegally in 2019.

Kolanski says he has not been able to speak with his client and is not sure of his current immigration status. Hernandez's family also says the hospital where he is being treated has not yet allowed them in to see him, and his condition is not known, per KTVU.

ICE continued to insist Wednesday, in an official statement, that Hernandez was "wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder." It was unclear if this was the 2019 case, or some other case.

We now have a fuller picture of what went down at Gate E2 at SFO's Terminal 3 on Sunday night, how ICE agents ended up there, and what happened with the woman afterwards.

Initial reporting around a viral incident Sunday at SFO was confusing as to how and why a woman and her nine-year-old daughter came to be targeted by ICE agents near a boarding gate, and how the scene became so dramatic with the woman in tears and apparently resisting the officers — all while onlookers chanted "Shame!" and San Francisco police provided crowd control.

A statement from an airport spokesperson, saying that "federal officers were transporting two individuals on an outbound flight when this incident occurred," turns out to have been factually incorrect, as were some subsequent reports about the incident.

The New York Times has come through with some better reporting, identifying the woman who was detained as Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, an immigrant from Guatelama who first came to the US with her daughter, who was then a toddler, during Trump's first term, in April 2018. We don't know anything about Lopez-Jimenez's story beyond the fact that she was picked up by federal agents near a port of entry at San Luis, Arizona. She was photographed, fingerprinted, and released with a court date for a removal hearing.

Per the Times, Lopez-Jimenez showed up for some court dates, but missed others, and she was absent when an immigration judge ordered her deportation on May 8, 2019.

We don't know anything else about her case, except that she later ended up in the Bay Area. And as the Times notes, she may not even have been aware that there was a deportation order out there. She had been living with her daughter in Contra Costa County, and the two were intending to fly to Miami on Sunday to visit a relative.

The reason ICE found her at SFO is, as the New York Times reports, because TSA had flagged her in its boarding logs, and alerted ICE that she would be there. She was reportedly approached by a plainclothed agent who asked her name, and then asked to see her passports, both from Guatemala. According to the reporting, other agents approached, and they asked her to follow them to the International Terminal, and at that point she attempted to run — clearly out of desperation, given that she had her daughter in tow.

This was the moment where onlookers began taking video showing Lopez-Jimenez in tears, being restrained, because she apparently was wriggling and making it difficult for the officers to get handcuffs on her.

The Times tracked Lopez-Jimenez's arrest and deportation from there, saying that she was arrested just before 11 pm Sunday at SFO. By 7:50 pm Monday, she was in McAllen, Texas, at the McAllen Plaza Hotel and Suites, and by 3 am Tuesday she was already checked out, headed for an 8 am flight out of Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, bound for Guatemala.

It certainly seems like a whole lot of expense, trauma, and effort just to target a woman with no criminal record, and her nine-year-old daughter, and make sure they got out of the country.

"These are not the violent criminals that the Trump administration talks about,” said Nancy Tung, chairwoman of the San Francisco Democratic Party, speaking to the Times. “It’s just wrong.” Tung also serves on the SF Airport Commission.

Tung noted that this shows how TSA databases are now a tool for ICE, and that domestic terminals at airports are now places where ICE agents are hunting down undocumented individuals if they are trying to board planes.

Previously: ICE Not Deployed to Assist TSA at SFO, But They Were There Arresting Someone Sunday Night

A witness at SFO Sunday filed a complaint that SFPD officers violated sanctuary laws by shielding ICE agents in plainclothes from bystanders who were asking them to identify themselves, as the ICE agents attempted to restrain a woman being deported with her young daughter.

Witness Nicole Killian filed a complaint with the California Department of Justice and the SF City Attorney, as Mission Local reports, alleging that SFPD officers assisted ICE agents who were restraining a mother and her daughter at San Francisco International Airport Sunday as they were being deported to Guatemala.

Attorneys knowledgeable about local sanctuary policies told Mission Local the actions of SFPD officers may have violated SF’s sanctuary ordinance as well as SFPD’s policy directives.

As SFist reported Monday, the arrest was not related to President Donald Trump’s recent directive to send ICE agents to some US airports amid the partial government shutdown — and SFO employs private contractors to manage security checkpoints, so therefore doesn't rely on federal TSA employees.

The Chronicle reports that the woman being restrained, Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, had tried to escape custody, and officials said she may have been detained elsewhere and was being transported through SFO. An immigration judge had reportedly issued a final order for Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter’s deportation seven years ago, in 2019.

Mission Local reports that a total of 20 SFPD officers were on the scene of the arrest. A group of bystanders filmed police officers forming a buffer around ICE agents in plainclothes, who witnesses say refused to identify themselves. SFPD officers were also filmed escorting ICE agents as they transported the woman in a wheelchair away from the scene.

SFPD released a statement that officers were responding to a 911 call about the incident, and they stayed on the scene to “maintain public safety.”

“The crowd was furious, but was giving them their distance and was only asking reasonable questions about the identification and documenting what was happening,” Killian told Mission Local. “I was like, you’re not supposed to be helping, but if you’re allowed to crowd control, how is that not helping them?”

Grisel Ruiz, ​​the senior managing attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, pointed out that SFPD’s crowd control role amounted to providing resources that supported ICE operations.

“Creating a perimeter around an ICE arrest to keep the public at a distance so that ICE can conduct an arrest appears to be the SFPD using its resources to support an ICE arrest,” Ruiz told Mission Local.

Bill Ong Hing, a longtime immigration attorney, professor of law at University of San Francisco, and a former police commissioner, told Mission Local that SFPD is only allowed to assist ICE in an emergency or if the public potentially poses harm to ICE agents. Otherwise, police may have violated both the city's ordinance and SFPD’s directive.

“SFPD may argue [the woman being arrested] created a situation where there was a danger to the public," Hing says.

Angela Chan, assistant chief attorney at the San Francisco public defender’s office, told Mission Local, “It does not appear there is any crime being committed by any members of the public.”

“A dozen officers stand in a circle to help officials to take or keep someone in custody, that seems to fit the definition of ‘assisting,'” Chan said, calling the incident “alarming and horrifying.”

Previously: ICE Not Deployed to Assist TSA at SFO, But They Were There Arresting Someone Sunday Night

Image: din_jarring/Reddit

ICE agents are not be getting deployed at SFO as they are at other airports to assist TSA agents amid the partial government shutdown, but they were there on Sunday anyway, conducting an arrest.

News came out Sunday that President Trump was seeking to solve the problem of TSA agent shortages at US airports — caused by the impasse in Congress over the funding of ICE, which has impacted the paychecks of TSA agents but not ICE agents — by deploying ICE agents to TSA checkpoints. This will likely create new nightmares on its own, however for now, the Bay Area is being spared this particular deployment.

As ABC News is reporting Monday, ICE agents are being sent to 14 airports around the country that have seen the highest rates of TSA agents calling in sick, and neither SFO nor Oakland Airport is on the list. The list includes major hubs like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport, Chicago O'Hare, Phoenix, Houston's Bush Intercontinental, and JFK, as well as airports in New Orleans, Cleveland, and Fort Meyers, Florida.

The list of airports where ICE is coming is reportedly "subject to change."

Still, ICE agents were present at SFO on Sunday, with a post on Reddit Sunday night linking a deportation arrest caught on video to the Trump announcement, saying "ICE already causing havoc at SFO."

As KTVU reports, ICE agents were at the airport on an unrelated matter, and airport officials confirmed that they conducted the arrest in the secure area of Terminal 3.

A crying woman could be seen being forcibly handcuffed in the video, which said the arrest occurred around 10 pm near Gate E2.

A young girl was reportedly also taken into custody with the woman.

"We understand federal officers were transporting two individuals on an outbound flight when this incident occurred," said SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel in an email to KTVU. "We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO."

Regarding the use of ICE agents to perform the functions of TSA agents at airports, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi told ABC 7 Sunday, "It's completely wrong.  ICE agents are not trained for the job they have now."

Update: The Chronicle adds the detail that SFO is one of around 20 airports in the country that employs private contractors to staff security checkpoints, rather than federal TSA employees, so therefore it is not impacted during government shutdowns.

Also, according to state Senator Scott Wiener, the woman seen crying and being held down near a boarding gate at SFO was being put on a plane with her daughter to be forcibly deported, and reportedly she did get on the plane.

Photo by Duke Cullinan

• A federal judge in Missouri dismissed a lawsuit filed by the sister of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who’s nine years younger, alleging he sexually abused her as a child — due to the statute of limitations expiring in 2008. The judge did however say she could refile the claim under Missouri's Childhood Sexual Abuse statute, while also approving a counter suit from Sam Altman against his sister for defamation. [Reuters]
• Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputies took a suspect into custody in Lafayette after they found a dead body while conducting a welfare check Saturday morning. [SFGate]
• Fremont police arrested a man who allegedly rammed the car multiple times of the mother of his one-year-old son while the child was in the car. [KRON4]
• Children's entertainer Ms. Rachel recently announced she’s begun working to free children from ICE detention centers and aims to force the closure of the Dilley location in Denver, with the help of lawyers and activists. [NBC News]
• Steph Curry will be back participating in full team practices soon, as he's missed 21 consecutive Warriors games while recovering from a knee injury, and he’s scheduled for an evaluation Tuesday. [KPIX]
• Spring is here! Behold, two colorful and up-close-and-personal vignettes of Saturday’s spectacular Tulip Day at SF’s Union Square. [OnlyInSF, nanaraya_ / Instagram]

The notorious and scandal-tainted former federal women’s prison known as FCI Dublin was rumored to be in the Trump administration’s crosshairs to make it an ICE holding pen, but the administration claims it has no such plans.

The East Bay women’s federal prison known as the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin (FCI Dublin) closed in April 2024, having gained the ugly nickname of the “rape club” after a stomach-churning set of sexual abuse claims from the women incarcerated there was revealed to be so bad that the warden and even the chaplain were sentenced to prison for sex crimes. And once Trump took office again, the Dublin community has been worried that the Trump administration would try to turn the now-closed prison into an ICE detention facility.

But KTVU got a statement out of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insisting that they will not turn FCI Dublin into an ICE holding pen. "ICE does not have plans to use the FCI Dublin for immigration detention,” the department said in a statement to KTVU.

So that sounds pretty definitive, right? It does, but the rest of that same statement is so bizarre that its credibility becomes quite difficult to believe.  

"Thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has new funding to expand detention space to keep murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists off American streets before they are removed for good from our communities," the statement continues. "Secretary [Kristi] Noem aims to work with officials on both sides of the aisle to expand detention space to help ICE law enforcement carry out the largest deportation effort in American history."

Immigrants’ rights activists are unconvinced this eliminates the risk of FCI Dublin becoming an ICE center.

"I know this agency sort of plays around with what the truth is, and the detention center could eventually be bought up by a private prison company,” Immigrant Legal Resource Center staff attorney Jean Laner told KTVU. “So then it might not actually be like the DHS owning it, but it might be a private company."

Coincidentally, Dublin’s congressional representative and aspiring California governor candidate Eric Swalwell just happened to hold some manner of press conference outside FCI Dublin just yesterday.

“FCI Dublin was closed after horrific abuse. It should not be reopened as an ICE detention facility,” Swalwell said. “I stand with our community in saying no to bringing ICE into Dublin. We deserve transparency, accountability, and public safety — not a repeat of past harms.”

Related: ICE Might Be Looking to Use Shuttered Dublin Women's Prison as Immigrant Detention Center [SFist]

Image: Jesstess87 via Wikimedia Commons

• Laura X, a prolific 85-year-old women’s rights activist and organizer in Berkeley who’s credited with getting spousal rape banned in California, lost all of her money to a Ponzi scheme while creating a million-page women’s history archive, and her friends have launched a couple fundraisers to help her get back on her feet. [Berkeleyside]
• A 66-year-old nanny in SF’s Diamond Heights was detained Friday morning by ICE agents in an unmarked car, and a judge ordered her release ten hours later, largely due to the work of immigration advocates. [Mission Local]
• Gay and lesbian couples and activists commemorated the 22nd anniversary of “the Winter of Love” at City Hall Friday, marking the landmark month in 2004 when then-mayor Gavin Newsom issued same-sex marriage licenses before the state Supreme Court later invalidated them — four years prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage federally in 2008. [KRON4]

• A woman whose car got stuck on the railroad tracks in Emeryville early Saturday morning narrowly managed to escape the vehicle before an oncoming train struck it, causing it to catch fire. [Bay Area News Group]
• The first in a series of storms is expected to hit Northern and Central California Sunday night, bringing moderate to heavy rain, followed by a colder storm Tuesday and yet another storm system Thursday. [Chronicle]

Image: Stockton Street during Chinatown's Flower Market Fair; Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram held a meet-and-greet in Bodega Bay Wednesday, which was met with a group of local protesters and community members denouncing the sheriff for handing over 70 people to ICE in 2025, urging him to support a proposed non-compliance ordinance.

As KTVU reports, a standard meet-and-greet that Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram held for west county residents in Bodega Bay Wednesday evening ended up serving as a platform for the larger Sonoma County community to air their grievances to the sheriff for cooperating with ICE, including protestors from the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition.

The protesters, many of them with the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition, pointed out that 70 people were released to ICE officials last year, explaining that state law enables the sheriff to refuse participating with ICE altogether, per KTVU.

"People are going straight from the jail, after they've served their sentences, to ICE detention and eventually deportation," said Renee Saucedo of the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition.

Sheriff Engram argued that his office only acts on warrants from a judge and strictly notifies ICE about immigrants with serious or violent convictions. As Hoodline reports, the sheriff’s office provided the community with details on its policies in a May 11, 2025 letter.

“We only have contact with ICE for serious and violent felonies and only those who have been convicted. My decisions are based on what I think is overall better for community safety,” said Engram, per KTVU.

As KTVU reports, the sanctuary coalition is urging the sheriff and other county officials to support their non-compliance ordinance, which would “legally prohibit the use of County resources to aid federal immigration enforcement, except when absolutely required by state or federal law,” per the group’s website.

According to the coalition’s website, the ordinance “builds upon past actions by the Board of Supervisors, including protections for DACA recipients, support for immigrant legal defense, and public opposition to ICE collaboration, by finally codifying these protections into law.”

Hoodline notes that Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey recently changed his position on the county’s relationship with ICE and has begun pushing the county to cut ties, as reported by the outlet KRCB.

The sanctuary coalition says it will continue to put pressure on the sheriff and board of supervisors to support the ordinance.

Image: Sheriff Eddie Engram/Facebook

During the general strike on January 30, the folks at Fleetwood Fine Goods in the Inner Richmond began offering free “F*ck ICE” screenprints, which was met with huge success, and they’re continuing to offer the service to anyone who brings in or purchases a garment of their choice.

As SFGate reports, Fleetwood Fine Goods announced the offer on social media the day before the general strike, attracting around 200 people who lined up along Clement Street for free screenprints. In addition to the “F*ck ICE” print, a design with the message, “No One Is Illegal on Stolen Land,” was also available.

Per SFGate, the shop workers decided against closing operations during the general strike and instead dedicated the day to offering free screen printing services to the community. They also limited all sales in the shop to cash-only — to keep any funds from going to banks — and donated the proceeds to El Tecolote and the San Francisco Immigrant Legal Defense Collaborative, per SFGate.

“We support and stand with the shops who are closed,” the shop wrote on social media. “We love you, Minneapolis. Go support an immigrant-owned small business who can’t afford to close.”

SFGate writes that Fleetwood’s shop sells work from around 150 local artists and artisans in addition to offering custom screenprints on its six-color, four-station press, often referred to as the “octopus.” The free screenprints have enhanced the sense of community that surrounds the shop, which was reflected in a note someone left during the general strike.

“Keeping up with current events lately has been heartbreaking — and then Fleetwood does this and reminds me that I’m part of a community & we are not alone,” the note read, per SFGate. “Thank you for the hope.”

SFGate reports that the store is still offering the two free screenprint designs Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 6 pm. Cotton material is recommended.

Image: Fleetwood Fine Goods

A federal judge has shot down state Senator Scott Wiener’s ban on ICE agents wearing masks, because of wonky new amendments that Wiener and Governor Newsom added to it, constituting a classic Democratic political screw-up.

Since he is in a competitive race for Nancy Pelosi's seat in Congress, state Senator Scott Wiener can use every political win he can get. And he sure seemed to have one when his statewide ban on ICE agents wearing masks passed the legislature, then ICE’s reputation took a national nosedive, and Wiener’s bill looked so appealing that even Governor Gavin Newsom was trying to take credit for it.  

“Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, people disappearing, no due process, no oversight, zero accountability, happening in the United States of America today,” Newsom said recently on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “These are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government.”

But the Chronicle reports that a federal judge blocked Winer’s bill on Monday. And on a sad-slash-hilarious note, the judge had no objection to the mask ban, but only struck the law down because Newsom and Wiener added an amendment after the fact that exempted California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers from the rule, which the judge declared inconsistent and just threw the whole law out.

SF Supervisor Jackie Fielder chimed in that this was an “unreal corporate Democrat self-own." The Chronicle adds that "In the wake of the ruling, both Newsom and Sen. Scott Wiener, the San Francisco Democrat who wrote the law, suggested the other was at fault.”

For his part, Wiener says he’s rewriting the law and giving it another shot with a new version that no longer exempts CHP and other state officers.

Meanwhile, Newsom told the press today that he wouldn't sign that bill if Wiener resubmitted it with that CHP exemption removed. “Based on the court’s decision, I think we should move in the opposite direction,” Newsom said at a press conference, according to the Chronicle. “We should have a federal mask ban.”

However this shakes down, this is not a chapter that makes either of these California politicians look ready for the US House of Representatives, and certainty not for the Presidency of the United States.

Related: Scott Wiener’s Law Banning ICE Agents From Wearing Masks Takes Effect Thursday. Will ICE Abide? [SFist]

Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 21: Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on July 21, 2025 in New York City. Lawmakers in New York are introducing a bill that would ban law enforcement officers, including federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, from wearing masks. The bill, sponsored by Assemblymember Tony Simone, would be called the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics (MELT) Act. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Activists from a group called Contra-ICE stealthily handed out over 15,000 towels at Levi’s Stadium Sunday, which featured the message “ICE Out” and a bunny illustration by acclaimed artist Lalo Alcaraz to coincide with Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance.

As the Chronicle reports, a group of artists and organizers from the collective Contra-ICE launched a creative act of resistance ahead of the Super Bowl game Sunday inspired by halftime performer Bad Bunny. Per Newsweek, volunteers located at multiple entrances at Levi’s Stadium surreptitiously passed out around 15,000 towels featuring the message “ICE Out” on one side and a bunny illustration by the award-winning, Los Angeles-based cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz on the other.

Per the Chronicle, the bunny is depicted wearing Bad Bunny’s signature Puerto Rican jibaro hat and holding a grenade, which is reportedly a reference to Green Day, along with the band's album American Idiot, while kicking a block of ice with a football inside. Per Newsweek, the illustration also includes a QR code that directed participants to wave the towels during the game when penalty flags were raised.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, about 50 volunteers helped with the effort, which was inspired by Bad Bunny’s outspoken support for the immigrant and Latin American communities, as he vocalized last week at the Grammys. “We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans,” proclaimed the singer.

Additionally, as KRON4 reports, about 300 protestors gathered outside the stadium Sunday, marching and holding "ICE Out" signs throughout the game.

“Today is a celebration of American sports, and there are opportunities to really be heard here,”  Shasti Conrad, one of Contra-ICE’s leaders and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, told the Times. “It’s about drawing attention to show that there is massive support to challenge Trump and the Department of Homeland Security. Any opportunity to push back is important.”

Image: People for Bernie/Threads

The ICE fanboy billboard in Fisherman's Wharf had a pretty short run, because the district’s Supervisor Danny Sauter said on social media Wednesday that the Super Bowl-themed billboard near Per 39 has been removed.  

A local curiosity popped up in SF in the lead-up to this weekend’s Super Bowl activities, as a pro-ICE electronic billboard went up in Fisherman’s Wharf and created something of a local media stir. At the corner of Jefferson and Mason streets, right above a tourist shop called $10 Hoodies, the ICE-loving video billboard flashed three rotating messages reading “Defensive Player of the Year: ICE,” “They Can’t Win Without Defense. Neither Can America," and “Cheering Because the Home Team Finally Invested in Defense."  

But as of Wednesday, that billboard was no longer flashing those messages. KRON4 reports that the pro-ICE billboard has been taken out of commission, or at least, that’s what District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter said in a Wednesday Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Supervisor Danny Sauter (@dannysauterd3)

“I’m glad to share that the billboard ads supporting ICE that popped up in Fisherman’s Wharf earlier this week have been removed,” Sauter said on Instagram Wednesday. “Thanks to the Fisherman’s Wharf CBD and the business owner for their partnership in getting the ads taken down so quickly. No one in San Francisco - visitor or local - wanted to see those pathetic billboards.”

(Fisherman’s Wharf CBD refers to the Fisherman’s Wharf Community Benefit District, to which many nearby businesses belong.)

The ads were not placed up there by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but instead by some nebulous and anonymous group calling themselves American Sovereignty. That group has a threadbare website that’s just an email sign-up form, and while Fox News claimed the group was launching a “multimillion-dollar advertising campaign,” it seems like that paltry Fisherman’s Wharf billboard is their only ad buy to date.  

Either way, the SF billboard is now gone, so carry on with your other enjoyable pre-Super Bowl frivolous pursuits.

Related: Offensive Billboards Appear In SF Promoting ICE as 'Defensive Player of the Year' [SFist]

Image: @AmSovereignty via Twitter

Some hastily put together, pro-ICE electronic billboard ads, paid for by a shady outfit with no known donors, have appeared in San Francisco ahead of the Super Bowl, and maybe in other cities as well.

If there is some contingent of Americans who are still on the fence about the immigration-enforcement/citizen-harassment and killing actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, they are likely still in their cabins in the woods or under a rock, and not visiting San Francisco for Super Bowl Week.

But a group calling themselves American Sovereignty, with no on-the-record spokesperson or disclosed donors, has launched what they say is a multi-million-dollar ad campaign in a questionable effort to bolster public perception of ICE agents. It's a version of crisis PR — and not a particularly good one! — at a moment when public opinion of ICE is reaching new lows. (There are still, disturbingly, 37% of respondents to that poll who say ICE's recent actions are "about right" or "not enough.")

The ads, as KRON4 and others have reported, began appearing in recent days on at least one electronic billboard near Fisherman's Wharf, and include messages — alongside stock imagery — apparently tailored to Super Bowl Week, like "Cheering because the home team finally started investing in defense," and "Defensive Player of the Year: ICE."

Fox News had the "exclusive" news about the ad campaign last week.

There are narrated TV spots as well, one of which has the message, "They're friends and neighbors. Sons, fathers. They’re Little League coaches and veterans. They’re people who love this country."

And there's the one seen below promoting Trump's spurious narrative that only criminals are being targeted by ICE agents. It's unclear if these have appeared on TV anywhere, and that particular video has only gotten 682 views since it was posted three days ago.

As Daily Kos notes, American Sovereignty's official website has no listing of donors, directors, or spokespersons, just an email signup form. And the Fox News story doesn't contain any statement from the group or any direct quote from a person connected to the group. The group claims that the TV spots will be targeting Washington, DC; Michigan; North Carolina; and Georgia.

It could be that this campaign is for San Francisco's sake only, during the Super Bowl, and that it isn't a multi-million-dollar one at all.

The American Sovereignty X account only appears to be a few weeks old, has a mere  189 followers, and the only evidence of the billboards that they've documented are the ones at that one corner near Fisherman's Wharf.

On the American Sovereignty website, the group says, "Our mission is to strengthen border security, end trafficking and cartel exploitation, and close loopholes that reward unlawful entry."

Related: Emeryville Protesters Storm Home Depot and Target to Pressure Them Against Cooperating With ICE