SF Leaders Reaffirm ‘Sanctuary City’ Status Amid Trump’s Immigration Crackdown

San Francisco officials gathered Tuesday on the steps of City Hall to send a message to President Trump, reaffirming the city’s pledge not to use local resources to support his immigration enforcement efforts.

The press conference came ahead of a Board of Supervisors meeting where members unanimously passed a resolution upholding San Francisco’s long-standing sanctuary city ordinance, which prevents city agencies from aiding federal immigration enforcement.

“There are factions of this city and this country that want to see cities like San Francisco roll back their sanctuary policies,” Supervisor Jackie Fielder said at the press conference, which was well attended by the city’s local political figures, from Mayor Daniel Lurie to state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Maria Su.

“What [this] should communicate to Trump, to anyone that wants to see us roll back, is we are not going back,” Fielder said.

The ordinance promises to provide resources and tools to the city’s immigrant community, which it says is “an essential part of ensuring public safety, public health, and community integrity.”

The Board of Supervisors’ vote comes just over a week after Trump took office, intensifying fears over local Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Fielder said she proposed the resolution reaffirming San Francisco’s sanctuary status after hearing from residents who felt unsafe seeking city services for fear that they could be reported to immigration officials.

“We are here with our immigrant neighbors,” said Fielder, who newly represents the Mission District, where about half of the residents identify as Latinx. “We will be here whether you are a tech CEO, a tech worker, a student, a janitor — no matter your status, you deserve to feel safe.”

Last week, a now-disproven email from SFUSD said a student reported seeing immigration officials on a Muni bus, sending panic through many school communities. But there have been immigration enforcement operations in the Bay Area.

At Tuesday’s press conference, SEIU Local 87 President Olga Miranda confirmed that ICE agents entered two locations downtown last week, and immigration officials carried out searches at two locations in San José over the weekend, according to the nonprofit Rapid Response Network of Santa Clara County.

The reports follow a directive from the Department of Homeland Security to rescind President Obama’s guidelines for ICE enforcement actions, which barred the officers from acting in “sensitive areas,” such as schools and churches.

City Attorney David Chiu, whose office joined a federal lawsuit to block Trump’s order to curtail birthright citizenship the day after he reentered the White House, said the city’s sanctuary status keeps residents safe.

“When immigrant families trust law enforcement, victims and witnesses come forward, criminals are arrested, crimes are solved,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference. “We know that effective law enforcement requires community trust. To be safe, our immigrant families and workers must trust. Our victims and witnesses need to know that our police officers are not ICE agents.”

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the birthright citizenship order.

Lurie — who has mostly avoided going toe-to-toe with Trump since his inauguration — alluded to the president’s slew of immigration policies as stoking “uncertainty and fear throughout our immigrant communities right now.”

“I’ve always said that public safety is my first priority,” he said. “That means everyone in our city should feel comfortable interacting with local law enforcement and accessing city services. For decades, we have had policies that do that. These policies make us all safer, and you have my commitment to uphold them.”

According to his press secretary, Charles Lutvak, Lurie does not plan to comment or act on the resolution that supervisors passed.