DHS Says It Is Sending Immigration Agents to San Francisco

The Trump administration is sending federal agents for immigration enforcement operations to San Francisco, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Oct. 22.

“DHS is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens—including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists—in cities such as Portland, Chicago, Memphis, and San Francisco,” a Homeland Security Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “As it does every day, DHS law enforcement will enforce the laws of our nation.”

The official did not specify when the agency would be dispatching the agents.

President Donald Trump recently said that San Francisco would be the next city to see federal immigration enforcement operations.

“Next, we’re going to go to San Francisco. The difference is, I think they want us in San Francisco. San Francisco was truly one of the great cities of the world,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday. “We’re going to make it great. It’ll be great again. San Francisco is a great city. It won’t be great if it keeps going like this.”

The federal immigration crackdown in San Francisco comes months ahead of the NFL hosting Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California, near San Francisco.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to Los Angeles in a crackdown on illegal immigration. The efforts drew mass anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, with some devolved into riots, and Trump then sent hundreds of Marines and National Guard soldiers to the city in response.

So far, Trump has deployed National Guard soldiers to Washington, D.C., Illinois, Portland, Oregon, and Memphis, Tennessee, in efforts to crack down on both illegal immigration and violent crime.

Earlier this month, billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in an interview that he believes Trump should send the National Guard to San Francisco, where Benioff is from.

“We don’t have enough cops, so if they can be cops, I’m all for it,” Benioff told The New York Times, saying that he supports Trump.

After the interview was published, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared it on X and wrote, “SF downtown is a drug zombie apocalypse.”

Benioff later sought to clarify his remarks to the paper, saying there has been progress in reducing crime in San Francisco.

“We’re grateful for the progress Mayor [Daniel] Lurie and all our partners have made, and we look forward to continuing to work together to make our city safe for everyone who lives, works and visits here,” he wrote on X Oct. 12.

Lurie said Oct. 20 that sending the National Guard to San Francisco will not help with issues that the city has already made progress with.

“I am deeply grateful to the members of our military for their service to our country, but the National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers—and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets or make our city safer,” the mayor said in a statement.

On Oct. 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, highlighted efforts between key law enforcement partnerships in recently bringing down crime in San Francisco.

“Through meaningful and significant funding investments and partnerships with local law enforcement and community groups—our crime is down,” Newsom said in a statement. “Although good enough never is, we will keep working together to help keep Californians safe.”

San Francisco police chief Bill Scott told reporters in January that crime in the city is at its lowest point in 23 years.

“Across the board, with violent crime from robberies to shootings to homicides to sexual assaults, they’re all down,” he said, adding that violent crime and property crime are down by double digits compared to 2023.

The San Francisco Bay Area had the highest property crime rate out of any region in California in 2023, at 3,167 incidents per 100,000 residents, according to a January review of crime statistics by the Public Policy Institute of California.

While overall violent crime in major California cities is down 12.5 percent this year compared to 2024, the largest drops in overall violent crime were reported by the Oakland and San Francisco police departments, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

The rate dropped by 30 percent in Oakland and 22 percent in San Francisco, year over year.

During the Biden administration in February 2024, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in San Francisco arrested 26 illegal immigrants with pending charges or convictions for murder, homicide, and assault against children during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from Jan. 16-28 of that year.

Jack Phillips and Lear Zhou contributed to this report.