In this article a member of Black Rose/Rosa Negra’s California Bay Area Local reflects on the organizing that made recent mobilizations to oppose a “surge” of federal agents in their region both possible and successful.
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by Juan Verala Luz
Between October 22nd and 26th, the Bay Area successfully stood down a planned incursion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and operations. While an official narrative has emerged that backroom maneuvering by local tech capital reversed plans for the “surge,” this version of events leaves out how Bay Area residents mobilized forcefully en masse to protect one another. Far from a spontaneous response to an immediate crisis, political and social movement organizations had been diligently preparing for this moment since Trump’s 2024 electoral victory.
In line with his attacks on other liberal bastions, Trump has regularly condemned San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley for their poverty, homelessness, manufactured crime crisis, and resistance since his first administration. The administration has particularly directed its ire at Oakland, where former House Representative Barbara Lee won the mayorship in 2025. Alongside its assault on immigration and “DEI purges” in bureaucratic leadership, the administration barely hides its white supremacist motives.
It was no surprise, then, when on Wednesday, October 22nd rumors that his administration was planning to “surge” the region over the upcoming weekend with 100 to 1,500 federal law enforcement officials for an anti-immigrant “invasion” started pinging between Signal loops, WhatsApp groups, and social media. When ICE began its terror campaign at courthouses in San Francisco and Concord, word spread similarly before mainstream outlets verified the reporting’s veracity.
Timelines left little room for shock to set in as calls for backing down the surge spread just as fast as information about it. Rather than bogstandard, symbolic marches and rallies, calls to action centered on the alleged operation’s headquarters, Coast Guard Island. The small military base on suburban Alameda had one road and port in and out of it, raising the possibility that we could, indeed, stop ICE from entering our communities.
Believing that troops would need several days to ready operations, dozens descended on the intersection leading into Coast Guard Island on Thursday, October 23rd by 7am. Around 7:15am, a line of ICE and unmarked government vehicles made their way to the marching picket. The mighty but small crowd couldn’t hold back the vehicles as aggravated agents hopped out of their caravan to deploy flashbang grenades and shoot at least one demonstrator in the face with a pepper ball. Agents roared onto the base as dozens more protestors arrived. By midmorning, hundreds filled in all four crosswalks of the intersections and a range of vehicles made makeshift blockades to protect marchers from oncoming traffic. Nothing was going in, nothing coming out.
The spectacular, semi-successful shutdown came in part thanks to the liberal coalition Bay Resistance and its connected interfaith community’s calls to action. Candlelight vigils were the latter’s original declarations, but even clergy and congregants couldn’t stay on the sidelines while the administration threatened to unleash ICE on our towns. Marches called by coalitions of organizations across the Bay Area kept the intersection blockaded for much of the rest of the day.
On the morning of Friday, October 24, dozens descended once again to the intersection. This time, California Highway Patrol and local police decked in riot gear cordoned off the area with a one block buffer zone, preventing protesters from approaching it. By that afternoon, mainstream media swirled with reports from bureaucrats that confirmed Trump’s Thursday announcement that he had canceled the surge. Given this announcement came from an administration made up of people who lie as routinely as they breathe air, Bay Area residents weren’t willing to take Trump at his word. Instead, those who had mobilized committed to continuing their pressure through the weekend. Even if the surge wouldn’t materialize, we could still spread power, not panic in the face of its threat.
While Bay Area residents mobilized in droves on Saturday to sites anticipated to be hit by ICE operations, the terror squad took advantage of the operation’s 40+ mile perimeter to demand immigrant residents near the Sacramento suburb of Stockton report to emergency “check-ins.” In communities across the country ICE has deployed this mass round-up tactic. Once Stockton residents caught wind of the effort, they mobilized their networks to defend themselves the best they could. On October 25th, twenty-five people were snatched at these hearings, twenty-five holes ripped into our social fabric because they were born on one side of a line in the sand that’s enforced at gunpoint.
By Saturday evening, organizers in Stockton shared the devastating news and requested widespread support to stave off future deportations. Similarly refusing to recognize the municipal boundaries ICE traverses to attack us, dozens caravanned to reinforce Stockton residents’ resilient efforts the following day. On Sunday, not a single person was snatched.
These confrontations didn’t materialize out of thin air; they had been long in the making.
Since Trump’s inauguration, organizing across the Bay Area with support from comrades across the state and country has flourished. Seasoned trainers and recently educated residents have led innumerable know-your-rights trainings and conversations with as many people. Heeding the National Day Laborer Organizing Network’s call, hundreds have sustained Adopt-A-Corner efforts. Foot and car patrol training sessions and how-to’s for ICE-proofing workplaces occur almost daily. Neighborhood councils and popular assemblies have set up hyperlocal efforts to warn about and respond to incursions into their neighborhoods. Employees across the Bay Area have generated safety plans to protect each other and customers, with some taking action at a moment’s notice. Hundreds of doors have been knocked, thousands of “ICE Not Welcome” signs hung, and tens of thousands of Red Cards and Yellow Cards distributed.
Much of these efforts have built upon and synergized with the brave efforts by courtwatch defenders. After ICE agents began targeting immigration courthouses in San Francisco and Concord with sneak attacks on defendants in late May, courtwatchers began building infrastructure to protect immigrant defendants on their way to hearings. On nearly every day of the week, defense efforts outside courtrooms pair with longstanding court accompaniment efforts led largely by faith communities inside them. Over the last several months, courtwatchers have documented near-zero deportations of court attendees.
In short, mass resistance and movement-building to defend immigrants and all our communities is an everyday feature of Bay Area life. The spontaneous rebellion that would have transpired against this news, no matter how valiant, was unlikely to temporarily push back a white supremacist presidency hellbent on mass deportations now without those months of day-in, day-out preparation.
We know this reprieve is temporary. Another “crisis” will come along that will inspire the Trump regime to set its sights on us once again. When that comes, this victory will carry us into the next struggle that will keep our neighbors, coworkers, and classmates safe—a kind of safety no state can provide.
Enjoyed this article? Want to read more about organizing to defeat ICE and building popular power in your everyday life? We recommend the following articles: Organizing to Keep ICE Out of Your Workplace and How To: Organize a Neighborhood Assembly.