The “surge” may not reach San Francisco, but the city is ready anyway

After months of As US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Guard fanned out across American cities, federal agents were preparing to descend on San Francisco.

Local resistance groups are coordinating with activists in other cities across the country that have been under siege by federal law enforcement. Thousands of volunteers, coordinated through Signal group chats, Zoom calls and social media posts, planned protests and spread the word that federal troops were on their way to San Francisco. Although they haven’t done that yet.

On Thursday morning, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lury posted on Instagram and X to announce that he had spoken with President Donald Trump and convinced him to cancel federal agents who were planning to go to San Francisco on Saturday. Trump confirmed this on Truth Social shortly thereafter, writing: “Great people like Jensen Hwang, Marc Benioff, and others have called saying the future of San Francisco is great. They want to give it a chance.” So, we won’t be going up to San Francisco on Saturday. Stay tuned!

Activists and San Francisco residents aren’t entirely convinced, and so the organizing continues.

Early this week, A contingent of about 100 federal law enforcement agents gathered at Coast Guard Island, a small base in Alameda, just across the bay from San Francisco, that federal officials say is being used as a staging area for upcoming immigration raids. There is only one road leading to and from the island, and once word spread of the outbreak, agents were quickly surrounded. About 200 demonstrators appeared on Thursday morning to try to disrupt their movements, leading to clashes.

On Wednesday night, a group called “Gulf Resistance” held a well-received educational webinar; Due to limitations on the group’s Zoom subscription, it had to cap the call at 5,000 participants. Hundreds later watched the recording.

“The Bay will not sit quietly,” Emily Lee, an organizer of the Bay Resistance, said in the mobilization call. “We will certainly stand together against this administration.”

Throughout the call, organizers spoke in English with Spanish subtitles, and shared plans for upcoming actions across the Gulf. They talked about the lessons learned from their direct contacts with organizers in Los Angeles who mobilized against ICE raids and the deployment of federal troops there, and the importance of taking the stand of protesters in Portland, who relied on humor and inflatable animals to counter ICE’s actions and protest Trump’s claims that the city is a “war-ravaged hellhole.”