SFPD Must Not Aid ICE – Demand Accountability Now

Local LevelBoard of Supervisors
Written By Anna Krasner

File a Complaint with the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability:
Call: (415) 241-7711
Submit online: https://www.sf.gov/departments--department-police-accountability

Instructions: You can submit anonymously, but for follow-up, you will need to submit
some of your contact information. The website will provide instructions for
describing the incident. You can use language from the call script below.

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 [live/work/study/worship] in San Francisco.

I am calling because I am deeply concerned about the March 22 SFO videos showing SFPD officers assisting ICE agents by blocking community members from filming or interacting with unbadged ICE agents who tackled and detained a mother while her child watched in distress. Several videos also show SFPD assisting in transporting the mother and child by following ICE through the terminal. These actions by SFPD clearly violate our city and state sanctuary laws and undermine our community’s trust.

For Supervisors
Will the Supervisor publicly condemn this behavior by SFPD and commit to a full investigation into SFPD officers violating 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. 

Sources


SFGATE via BCN: “Community Groups Accuse SFPD Of Unlawfully Aiding ICE During Migrant’s Arrest” https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/sf-community-groups-accuse-sfpd-of-unlawfully-22103408.php 

KQED Radio “Bay Area Officials Raise Privacy Concerns After ICE Arrest at SFO” 

Gazetteer San Francisco: “Community groups demand answers for police response to ICE at SFO” https://sf.gazetteer.co/community-groups-demand-answers-for-police-response-to-ice-at-sfo?giftLink=39b6dec6da1a9ad356b215d23d3086c7 

KTVU 2: “Community groups demand answers from SFPD, seen in viral ICE video at SFO”  https://www.ktvu.com/video/fmc-c21njo69qi006inn 

KPIX/CBS 5: “Critics say San Francisco police may have improperly assisted ICE during SFO detainment”

KGO/ABC 7: “Did SF police violate sanctuary law at SFO? Advocates demand answers after ICE arrest” 

KNTV/NBC 11: “Community groups accuse SFPD of unlawfully aiding ICE during migrants' arrest” 

KTSF 26 無證母女在舊金山機場被捕 據報是TSA向ICE報料 [“Undocumented mother and daughter arrested at San Francisco airport, reportedly after TSA tipped off ICE”]  https://www.ktsf.com/2026/03/26/tsa-tipped-off-ice/ 

Telemundo 48 via BCN: Cuestionan accionar de la policía de San Francisco durante detención de ICE en el SFO [Police acttions during ICE detention at SFO questioned] https://www.telemundoareadelabahia.com/noticias/local/cuestionan-accionar-policia-san-francisco-durante-detencion-ice-sfo/2524709/ 

KALW radio: “Community members protest police presence during ICE arrest at SFO” https://www.kalw.org/bay-area-news/2026-03-25/community-members-protest-police-presence-during-ice-arrest-at-sfo 

KPFA Radio: “ICE arrest at SF International Airport raises concerns of possible sanctuary law violations” https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=472932 [49:40 - 57:10]

Getty Images: “Protests erupt over SFPD assistance in ICE arrest at SFO.” [Images free to view but licenses must be purchased to download. See here.] 

 

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Anna Krasner
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