Following Thursday evening's protest outside ICE headquarters on Sansome Street, another prayer vigil and rally is scheduled Friday at 11:30 a.m. to protest planned Sunday deportation raids of immigrants' homes.
As ABC 7 reports, "Activists are mobilizing, saying they want to respond with power, not panic." And that response includes informing immigrants of their rights, getting teams of lawyers at the ready, and making sure ICE officials know that San Francisco isn't going to take these impending raids lying down.
Thursday evening's protest drew hundreds to 630 Sansome Street, with activists chanting "We will continue to resist through tears, through rage," as Bay City News reports.
Sharif Zakout, an organizer at the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, tells Bay City News, "It is our duty to show that San Francisco will not back down. When you come after one of us, you come after all of us."
A protest last week over poor conditions at ICE detention centers at the southern border ballooned into a march of a thousand or more people who took over Market Street at lunchtime and marched to the Federal Building on 7th Street.
Ahead of ICE's planned raids Sunday, which are targeting some 2,000 families who previously received self-deportation orders, the ACLU has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit seeking to get the immigrants cases heard properly before an immigration judge.
Per KPIX:
According to the ACLU, the suit aims to protect refugee families and children, many of whom the ACLU says have fled widespread violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and other counties at the hands of their governments and dangerous gangs.
Friday's rally, like Thursday's, will take place outside ICE's San Francisco offices at 630 Sansome Street.
Photo: Max Strebel/SFist