The rumors appear to be true that ICE agents tried at least five detention operations in San Francisco over the last few days, but were apparently turned away, and a who’s-who of SF City Hall officials rallied against this Tuesday morning.

Yesterday we reported that state Senator Scott Wiener had sounded the alarm that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had tried to enter several SF office buildings, presumably looking for immigrant custodial workers as part of President Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Though it was hard to be certain whether these claims were true — San Jose officials confirmed ICE operations in that city took place on Sunday, but last week the SF Unified School District fell for a false rumor about ICE agents on Muni buses.  

Well, the ICE in SF rumor has since been verified by SF Business Times. That publication reports that “people who identified themselves as federal immigration officials attempted to enter five downtown San Francisco office buildings on Friday afternoon.” In each case, they were denied entry by building security.

The Business Times adds that the agents were “not wearing uniforms but produced badges and documentation from the Department of Homeland Security” (DHS, which oversees ICE). There were no arrests made, because the agents were apparently not given access to the buildings, which is legal given that these buildings are private property and warrants were apparently not produced.

The attempted operations were also acknowledged in an invite to an SF City Hall rally that just wrapped up Tuesday afternoon, organized by the janitorial union SEIU Local 87. (You can watch video of the rally here, though it’s not particularly well-shot).

“On Friday, January 24, ICE agents appeared at multiple buildings in Downtown San Francisco where SEIU Local 87 janitors were working,” the invite says. “This alarming incident has sparked outrage and heightened concerns for the safety and dignity of immigrant workers in our city.”

There is also a possible sixth incident of an ICE operation in SF, in an unverified video posted Sunday afternoon that’s done the viral rounds. The account “Tenderloinactivities” admits the video is not their own video, so there’s no sense when the video was actually shot. Though it seems plausible that this is last week’s arrest of a Colombian national that NBC Bay Area has reported on, an arrest that occurred last Tuesday.  

Either way, there was that rally against the ICE operations just hours ago at City Hall, and pretty much every notable SF elected official showed up to speak: Mayor Lurie, all 11 members of the Board of Supervisors, DA Brooke Jenins, SFPD Chief Bill Scott, Sheriff Paul Miyamoto, and more. (City Attorney David Chiu’s speech got in the Hamilton reference “Immigrants, we get the job done.”)

Per KTVU, Lurie declared, "As mayor, I want everyone here, everyone and across our city to hear this directly from me. In San Francisco, we value our immigrant communities. We recognize your contributions to our city, and we stand with you. You belong here."

And SFPD Chief Bill Scott noted that his department would not participate in or aid in any ICE operations. “Immigration enforcement is the federal government's job. It is not the responsibility of the SFPD or any of our state or local governments," he told the crowd.

Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric has been politically effective for him. But given that every single supervisor and most SF elected officials were on the same page at this rally, it seems their calculation is that publicly opposing Trump’s anti-immigration policies is politically effective for them, too.

Related: Scott Wiener Says That ICE Was In ‘Downtown SF Office Buildings’ as Part of Mass Deportation Operations [SFist]

Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 6: An ICE agent monitors hundreds of asylum seekers being processed upon entering the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on June 6, 2023 in New York City. New York City has provided sanctuary to over 46,000 asylum seekers since 2013, when the city passed a law prohibiting city agencies from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement agencies unless there is a warrant for the person's arrest.(Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)