Thousands of anti-ICE demonstrators have marched through parts of San Francisco for the past two days, with the protest turning violent Sunday and Monday night as the Trump administration focuses its attention on the riots in Los Angeles.
Nearly 150 people were arrested and two police officers were injured on Sunday night as demonstrators became violent, ABC 7 reported. The rioting continued on Monday night, with agitators smashing windows of businesses in the Mission District, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco Democratic Mayor Daniel Lurie said the violence was carried out by a small contingent of the demonstrators gathered to protest President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts.
“They were breaking the law,” Lurie said of the rioters. “We effectuated a number of arrests for those that were committing crimes on our street.”
Video posted on social media by Wall Street Journal News Associate Xavier Martinez showed police in riot gear making arrests as they instructed demonstrators to “back up” and “get back.” The crowd then begins chanting, “Let them go!”
Law enforcement in San Francisco responds with force after group of demonstrators attempt to escape detention.
This came after +150 arrests Sunday night (more than double law enforcement in LA) pic.twitter.com/XUqrlnEJb0
— Xavier Martinez (@xavierjohnm) June 10, 2025
Some demonstrators carried Mexican flags and upside-down American flags, while others vandalized public property and businesses by tagging structures with messages like “F*** ICE,” along with some anti-Israel slogans.
Minh Connors/Anadolu via Getty Images
LAURE ANDRILLON/AFP via Getty Images
Of the 148 people arrested on Sunday night, all but one were cited and released, according to ABC 7. The one person who remained in custody was charged with a felony. Police declared an unlawful assembly on both Sunday and Monday night, and many of the protesters vacated the area, but a group of those who stayed on the street became violent, according to police.
“Everyone in this country has a right to make their voice heard peacefully, and local law enforcement will always protect that right and the rights of everyone in our city to be safe. But we will never tolerate violent and destructive behavior, and as crowds dwindled, a group that remained caused injuries to police officers, vandalized Muni vehicles, and broke windows of local businesses,” Mayor Lurie wrote on X late Sunday night.
The violence in San Francisco — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hometown — has received little national attention as the Trump administration focuses on the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles. Trump has deployed around 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to L.A. in an attempt to quell the unrest, a move that Newsom and L.A. Democratic Mayor Karen Bass argue was unconstitutional and unnecessary. Authorities arrested at least 42 agitators in L.A. County since Friday, and some of them face charges of assault on an officer and attempted murder, CBS News reported.