SFPD Must Not Aid ICE – Demand Accountability Now
File a Complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability: Call (415) 241-7711
Contact Mayor Lurie: Phone: (415) 554-6141 Email (use your own words): daniel.lurie@sfgov.org
Contact SFPD Chief Derrick Lew: ChiefSFPDchief@sfgov.org
Contact Paul Henderson, Executive Dir., Dept. of Police Accountability: sfdpa@sfgov.org
Contact President Don Clay, Police Commission: sfpd.commission@sfgov.org
Call ONE of the Supervisors AND Supervisor Mandelman. Note: only one of these Supervisors represents you. Find out which one here.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
I’m calling because I’m deeply concerned about the March 22 video from SFO showing SFPD officers blocking community members from filming or interacting with unbadged supposed ICE agents who tackled and detained a woman while her child watched in distress. Videos showed SFPD officers apparently forming a wall to shield the ICE agents from public attention. This undermines San Francisco’s sanctuary city laws and our community’s trust.
Will the Supervisor publicly condemn this behavior and commit to a full investigation into whether SFPD officers violated city law by aiding federal immigration enforcement?
Background
Last night at SFO, a mother was violently detained by unidentified ICE agents while her child cried nearby — all as SFPD officers apparently assisted the ICE agents in violation of our city’s sanctuary promises. As employees of the City and County of San Francisco, SFPD officers must not assist ICE with immigration enforcement. Please take the following actions to demand that SFPD honor our sanctuary laws and that the department is held accountable for its failure to do so.
Mayor Lurie’s and the city’s framing of the incident in the San Francisco Chronicle article “New details emerge on ICE incident at SFO captured in viral videos” conflicts with sanctuary policy in three key ways: it minimizes SFPD’s role as mere “public safety,” treats the incident as “isolated,” and ignores that even passive protection of ICE can count as “assisting” under SF law. When Mayor Lurie claims that SFPD officers “remained at the scene to maintain public safety and were not involved in the incident,” and describes it as an “isolated incident” with “no reason to believe” broader enforcement is happening at SFO, he downplays systemic sanctuary violations and reframes this as a one‑off disturbance. But we have seen repeated abductions of community members throughout San Francisco, from Diamond Heights to Immigration Court.
SFPD’s actions at SFO conflict with San Francisco’s sanctuary principles in three specific ways:
Use of city resources to assist ICE: By positioning themselves to shield plainclothes ICE agents from being questioned, filmed, or challenged by bystanders, SFPD officers used city authority and their own bodies to facilitate an ICE detention. That is functionally “assisting or cooperating” with an ICE arrest, even if they never laid hands on the detainee.
Rebranding assistance as “public safety”: Sanctuary policy exists to ensure local resources do not “facilitate ICE’s operations in any way,” yet the Mayor’s statement frames the officers’ actions as neutral crowd control instead of examining how their conduct protected ICE rather than the targeted family and community.
Failure to trigger accountability mechanisms: The city’s own sanctuary guidance directs people to file complaints when employees assist ICE. Treating this as an “isolated” incident in which SFPD was supposedly “not involved” sidesteps the obligation to fully investigate whether officers improperly used city resources to support immigration enforcement.
San Francisco law prohibits city employees from using city resources to assist any ICE arrest — yet SFPD officers used their uniforms, bodies, and authority to shield ICE from public scrutiny at SFO. The Mayor’s claim that SFPD “was not involved” contradicts the plain language of our sanctuary ordinance, which bans any assistance or cooperation with ICE enforcement, not just making an arrest or asking about immigration status.