Two people arrested by ICE in Oakland and Emeryville on Friday, Oct. 16, ended up in the hospital, and Bay Area immigration attorneys say federal agents are now making more arrests at homes, in cars and on the street, often with more force. Public defenders also reported seeing two ICE agents in the lobby of the San Francisco jail on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Why it matters: Most Bay Area immigration arrests have happened at courthouses and ICE check-ins. Attorneys say that is changing, and rapid response hotlines have logged more calls since the weekend.

The Oakland and Emeryville arrests

The Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership (ACILEP), a county program, said agents used "excessive force" in two arrests on Oct. 16, The Oaklandside reported. One was that morning at San Antonio Park in East Oakland. The other was that afternoon in Emeryville near 45th and Adeline streets.

The Emeryville man was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland. The man arrested at San Antonio Park was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza told The Oaklandside.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed the Emeryville arrest, saying ICE detained a man from Honduras in a targeted operation. DHS denied that agents used excessive force. "During the arrest, he attempted to assault officers and refused their lawful commands," the statement said, adding that he told staff about a pre-existing injury from falling off a ladder two days earlier. DHS did not comment on the Oakland arrest.

Protesters gathered outside Highland Hospital on Oct. 18 and again early Oct. 19. Alameda Health System said it had activated an incident command center and that care continued uninterrupted.

What attorneys are describing

Mission Local reported Wednesday that it verified six immigration arrests across the Bay Area in the past week. Four involved force such as pulling people from cars, slamming them to the ground or handcuffing them painfully tight.

  • Court filings describe an Oakland truck driver boxed in by six agents, who broke his car window with a hammer. He could not walk by the time he reached ICE's San Francisco processing office and was taken to SF General. A federal judge ordered him released Tuesday.
  • De Bremaeker said another Oakland client was hospitalized at Highland after being tackled, with six ribs fractured when an agent sat on his chest.
  • In Sonoma County, filings say agents aimed guns at a U.S. citizen driving to work while looking for her boyfriend, then pulled him from his car in a Santa Rosa parking lot.

Attorney Jonathan Abel of UC Law San Francisco's Habeas Institute said ICE "is going out more into the communities." Attorneys tied the shift partly to a reported nationwide target of 3,000 arrests a day introduced this month. Not everyone agrees it is a surge, Mission Local noted, and federal arrest data only runs through July. That data showed arrests in major Bay Area cities up 81% from July 2025 to July 2026.

Agents at the San Francisco jail

Deputy Public Defender Francisco Ugarte said public defenders spotted two ICE agents in the San Francisco jail lobby Tuesday. He called recent enforcement a "surge." Mission Local reported that the agents' presence raises questions about possible violations of city and state sanctuary policies. Alameda County deputies and Oakland police are barred by local law from cooperating with ICE, The Oaklandside noted.

The reports follow Monday's widely shared SoMa arrest on 6th Street. Track confirmed incidents on our Bay Area ICE tracker, and see Bonta's lawsuit over courthouse arrests.