Yesterday, a Coast Guard spokesperson, Petty Officer Graves, confirmed to The Oaklandside that an “operation” was underway and that the Coast Guard’s facilities in Alameda, on a small island connected to Oakland by a single road, would be providing support to Customs and Border Protection. Later in the day, Oakland Unified School District wrote to the school community saying, “We have received official reports this afternoon that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to step up their activity in the Bay Area by this Saturday, October 25, if not sooner.”

Oakland is a sanctuary city, and local immigrant advocacy groups and elected officials have been planning for stepped up federal operations in the Bay Area. The group Bay Resistance has planned a protest for today, Oct. 23, at 5 p.m. at San Francisco Embarcadero Plaza. The San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center posted that there will be a Faith Vigil today, at 7:30 a.m., at the Oakland entrance to the bridge that leads to Coast Guard Island, at Dennison Street and Embarcadero.

6:08 a.m.
A few more protesters are gathering at the entrance to the bridge.

5:42 a.m.

Right now, everything is quiet at the Oakland side of the narrow two-lane road that leads on and off of Coast Guard Island in the predawn darkness, at the corner of Dennison Street and Embarcadero East. But there’s a steady stream of traffic onto the island, vehicles of all makes and models. Coast Guard Island, home to a Coast Guard base, sits in the Oakland Estuary between Oakland and Alameda.

There are also about a dozen reporters gathered, vying for photographs of a single protester standing at the base of the bridge to the island, holding a sign that reads “ICE out now” and “Shame on you.” The protester has declared a “citizens’ checkpoint,” and is yelling “What are you doing here?” at cars headed into the facility. Four guardsmen are directing traffic around him.

Nearby, a dumpster has been sprayed with anti-ICE messages.

The Oakland entrance to the bridge that leads to Coast Guard Island. Credit: Darwin BondGraham/The Oaklandside

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