In October, Immigration and Customs Enforcement made just seven arrests at San Francisco immigration courts, a steep reduction after months of routinely detaining immigrants following their hearings.
There have been no arrests of immigrants attending hearings at the immigration court at 630 Sansome St. since Oct. 3, according to Milli Atkinson, a lawyer with the San Francisco Bar Association who closely monitors ICE actions there.
At 100 Montgomery St., the city’s other immigration courthouse, the last arrest recorded by Mission Local was on Aug. 20.
In September, by contrast, at least 35 people were arrested at the Sansome immigration court, according to Mission Local’s arrest tracker. More than 120 immigrants have been arrested by ICE in San Francisco since May, the vast majority at the courthouses or ICE field office.
From the beginning of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the locus of ICE arrests in San Francisco has been at the immigration courts, unlike in other cities where raids occur in workplaces or neighborhoods.
ICE arrests at S.F. immigration court have slowed significantly
ICE made 111 arrests at immigration
appointments between May 27 and Sept.
30, 2025.
ICE made
seven arrests
in October.
ICE made 111 arrests at immigration
appointments between May 27 and Sept.
30, 2025.
ICE made
seven arrests
in October.
Chart by Kelly Waldron. Source: Mission Local. Note: this data only includes arrests at immigration appointments in San Francisco.
The decline in numbers does not include at least two people who were arrested at the immigration courthouses unrelated to their hearings in October. But even counting both arrests, the numbers are a significant decline from highs this summer.
It is unclear why arrests have slowed.
San Francisco immigration attorneys and former judges pointed to the success of habeas corpus petitions, which challenge the unjust arrest of an individual, in quickly releasing immigrants from detention.
Local attorneys began using the petitions this summer and sometimes win immigrants’ release just hours after they have been arrested.
Former immigration judge Shira Levine, who was one of seven immigration judges fired from the San Francisco court since Trump took office, said that ICE is “looking for frictionless arrests.” The habeas petitions may make that more difficult.
Diana Mariscal, a senior attorney with La Raza Centro Legal, said the quick releases on habeas mean that ICE arrests have become a “complete waste of resources” for the agency. She believes ICE has realized as much, and is switching tack.
Between July 28 and Oct. 2, La Raza secured the release of 33 individuals detained in court through habeas filings. On Aug. 28, instead of filing individual habeas petitions, La Raza attorney Jordan Weiner successfully filed a group habeas for five asylum-seekers that released all of them from detention in one fell swoop.
The result of the slowdown in arrests is that asylum-seekers are walking out with new hearing dates and/or more time to find an attorney instead of being apprehended by ICE in the courthouse halls.
Even when asylum-seekers have their cases “dismissed” in recent weeks — a move by the Department of Homeland Security that has consistently indicated an impending ICE arrest — they have not been arrested.
DHS attorneys started asking immigration judges to dismiss cases back in June as a means of fast-tracking deportations. Though judges often did not grant the motions to dismiss, ICE agents arrested people anyways.
But now even when judges do grant the dismissal motions, as happened three times on Oct. 9, ICE did not arrest those immigrants.
But ICE has been exempt from the shutdown. ICE enforcement operations are expected to continue during the shutdown, and law enforcement officials received a “super check” in October, according to a statement by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
NPR reported that the Office of Detention Oversight, which inspects ICE detention facilities, will not work during the shutdown. Other than that, the agency has not been affected.