Overview

• Federal prosecutors filed two misdemeanor counts—destruction of property and assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer—against a protester identified as Angélica after the Aug. 20 confrontation outside the immigration court.
• Angélica, a U.S. citizen, was held by Homeland Security Investigations, taken to Santa Rita jail, then brought to federal court, where Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim ordered release pending a September court date.
• The charges stem from efforts by demonstrators to stop ICE from transporting an asylum-seeker after a hearing, with agents using pepper spray and physically restraining people, according to on-scene reporting.
• KQED reported that an officer discharged a device that released white powder into a protester’s leg during the street clashes, a detail not broadly corroborated in other accounts.
• The episode follows recent detentions of protesters outside ICE’s Sansome Street office, and Bay Area lawyers say charging a citizen protester in San Francisco is rare.