A coalition of Bay Area lawyers that can get people out of ICE detention within hours asked San Francisco for $250,000 in August. The city's answer: wait for next year's budget, Mission Local reported.

Why it matters: Network leaders say that timeline means money arrives in September 2027, while immigration arrests in major Bay Area cities rose 81% between July 2025 and July 2026, according to a Mission Local analysis of federal data.

What the network does

The Bay Area Habeas Network files emergency habeas corpus petitions in federal court, asking a judge to rule on whether ICE is holding someone lawfully. Its goal is a petition for every person unlawfully arrested by ICE in the Bay Area, according to founding member La Raza Centro Legal.

It officially launched May 1, 2026. Members include La Raza Centro Legal, the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, Centro Legal de La Raza in Oakland, and the San Francisco, Marin and Contra Costa public defenders' offices.

The network has freed at least 49 Bay Area residents arrested by ICE in the last five months, Mission Local reported.

A same-day release in Santa Rosa

On Tuesday in Santa Rosa, masked officers in vests marked "POLICE ICE" pulled a Mexican-born tow-truck driver from his car at gunpoint and took him to ICE's holding cells at 630 Sansome St., according to his attorney and court filings cited by Mission Local.

Attorneys filed a habeas petition, and a federal judge ordered his release the same day. He is back home with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and their 18-year-old daughter.

The money

  • Ask: $250,000 from San Francisco, to fund one more attorney.
  • City response: after Mission Local's inquiries, the mayor's office said the request will be considered in next year's budget process.
  • Santa Clara County has already committed $250,000 for an additional attorney, according to the network.

"The emergency is now," said Hillary Ronen, director of La Raza Centro Legal and a former District 9 supervisor. "We need to challenge every illegal arrest of our neighbors by ICE, today."

San Francisco already funds several of the network's member nonprofits directly, but not the network itself.

Federal data from UC Berkeley's Deportation Data Project shows 3,870 immigrants were arrested across 18 major Bay Area cities between the start of President Trump's term and July 1, 2026, while 116 habeas petitions were filed in San Francisco's federal court in that time, Mission Local found.

Related: SFUSD teachers accompany families to ICE check-ins at 630 Sansome.