San Francisco public school staff and volunteers have walked 137 SFUSD students and families through ICE check-ins and immigration hearings since January, including at the ICE office at 630 Sansome St., and none have been arrested, Mission Local reported on Thursday, Oct. 15.

Why it matters:

  • Arrests at routine ICE appointments in San Francisco rose sharply in 2025 under the Trump administration, and many families fear walking in alone.
  • Skipping an appointment or hearing can lead to a deportation order issued in absentia.
  • It is the only known program in the country that organizes and trains educators for this, Mission Local reported.

How it works

Educators at 20 SFUSD schools have been trained to go with students and families to appointments, Mission Local reported.

The program is a partnership of the district's RiseSF office for immigrant families, the nonprofit Faith in Action Bay Area and the teachers union, United Educators of San Francisco. The union pays for a substitute while a teacher is out.

If someone is detained, educators are trained to call the Rapid Response Hotline so a lawyer can file a habeas petition seeking release.

Inside a check-in day

Mission Local followed Ernesto Rodriguez, a social worker at E.R. Taylor Elementary in the Portola, as he drove a parent to two appointments on Oct. 1: a check-in at 630 Sansome and another at the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office on Tehama Street, which tracks immigrants with monitors.

Rodriguez said he has accompanied about 10 parents from his school.

Most days, at least one immigrant who goes into 630 Sansome for an appointment is arrested and taken out a back exit to detention, according to volunteers and activists who keep watch outside, Mission Local reported.

A close call

Aptos Middle School social worker Jenny Tseng said two sisters nearly missed their immigration court hearing when the family didn't show up at school that morning. Staff tracked down their mother and got the girls to court, where a judge rescheduled the case.

"That is how they win," Tseng said of missed hearings.

How it started

The effort grew out of "Safe Schools" meetings that immigrant mothers started in summer 2025, the San Francisco Public Press reported in June. Faith in Action says it has helped more than 1,000 Bay Area families with court accompaniment.

School board member Matt Alexander, Faith in Action's co-director, told Mission Local that children are tense going in, and relieved once "it's clear nobody's being detained or deported."

The federal side

Hundreds of immigrants were arrested at San Francisco check-ins in 2025, and arrests resumed this year after a pause of about six weeks, Mission Local reported in March, citing immigration attorneys. Many of those arrested have no criminal history, it said.

Neither Mission Local report included a response from ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.

Related: Bonta sues to stop ICE arrests at California courthouses and the ICE arrest near a Richmond elementary school.