“It’s a protest to reject authoritarian rule and the idea that any one person including President Trump is above the people,” said Liliana Soroceanu an organizer with Indivisible San Francisco.
Thousands marched from Dolores Park to Civic Center in San Francisco, with protesters densely spanning the entire 1.5-mile path.
Michelle Espinoza, a San Francisco resident, is a daughter of immigrants from Mexico. She said she was at the protests to show her support for her friends and family and those who were not able to join out of fear.
“It does make me feel better to see that there’s all of these people who are coming to support, not just the Latino community but all people affected by this administration,” Espinoza said. “It brings a kind of hope.”
Maria Alvarez, who protested in San José, said she feels outraged.
“This president needs to get put in check,” said Alvarez, the daughter of an immigrant. “All kinds of people are getting oppressed and it’s not acceptable at all. I’m just here out of rage.”
Marta Guerrero and her daughter Karina Soto, both of whom are educators, said they were at the protest in San José to support democracy.
“We know what this country can be, the promise of this country,” said Soto. “We have to fight for it, because I had no idea how quickly it could be taken away.”
Sara Moiseff, who’s transgender, also took part in the demonstrations in San José, taking aim at the federal government’s immigration enforcement via deportations .
“Transgender people are one of the most highly ostracized and persecuted minorities in this country, and they continue to receive only more pushback, more hatred, more discrimination,” Moiseff said. “I want to be a part of the fight against oppressive forces in the country.”
At a rally in Oakland, which organizers say drew an estimated 10,000 demonstrators, Denise Martin emphasized immigration rights and gay rights as key motivators for coming out to protest.
“We are the people and we want to be heard,” Martin said. “Our freedom is important to all of us, and the Constitution. … Nobody’s above the law.”
Giving a speech at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife said she hadn’t seen such a big crowd in 30 years. She told the crowd that the police chief warned her and other elected officials about coming out today in the wake of the shootings in Minnesota where a Democratic state legislator and her husband were killed and another was injured.
“Because elected officials are being targeted, because the way that our undocumented citizens are being targeted, makes me want to stand even taller and stronger,” said Fife. “Undocumented immigrants bring trillions of dollars that they will not see a benefit from, and they still work hard for our country. That is the most patriotic thing they could do. We are patriots and we are not ceding ground to the right.”
Congresswoman Lateefah Simon praised what she called “the most diverse congressional district in the United States.”
“We smell the stench of fascism,” said Simon. “Let me say this to the president of the United States: you don’t get to storm the Capitol, lie to our people, defund the future, and then return four years later, demanding a crown. We say: Hell no.”
Konani Chinn, 20, described the crowd of thousands gathered in Oakland as “super powerful” and praised everyone who came out.
“It takes a lot of effort for everyone to come out here, especially like I mean this protest is mostly older white people who are privileged. … Protests that I’ve been to personally in the past few years have been a lot of young people, more like marginalized people who are actively being affected. I think it’s really amazing that all these people are coming out regardless of their connection to it.”
Protesters Mary Richardson, Joann George and Carol McCullough all came to the Oakland protest and expressed disgust and shame with their country.
“Everything that we had fought for is being taken away from us,” said McCullough.
“People really need to pay attention,” George added. “when their Medicaid stops and their Social Security gets affected, they will know what this man is about.”
Robin Kettelle, who just turned 66, said at the rally in Oakland, “Enough is enough. I want to show the world that there is another set of beliefs that’s going on in America.”
Planning for the national day of action began weeks ago to protest Trump’s military parade.
But Soroceanu said Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines in Los Angeles added to the sense of urgency among organizers.
The Trump administration’s immigration raids in L.A. this month sparked large-scale protests throughout the region. Trump federalized the National Guard on June 7, deploying 2,000 Guard troops, and later 700 Marines, to respond to the protests. Gov. Gavin Newsom has challenged the move in court, arguing the administration violated the law by not coordinating the deployment with him.
“This militarization of law enforcement, which is both illegal and inappropriate, has escalated events in L.A. Yesterday, they assaulted a U.S. senator. So this is all behavior of a fascist regime,” Soroceanu said, referring to an incident Thursday when California Sen. Alex Padilla was removed from a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and forced to the ground.
San Francisco police arrested more than 200 people in the hours following demonstrations on June 8 and 9, accusing some of vandalizing businesses or throwing objects at police.
Soroceanu and other organizers urged attendees to remain peaceful and nonviolent at Saturday’s protests, but local and state officials said they prepared for massive turnout and the possibility of clashes between protesters and police.
Earlier Saturday, dozens of demonstrators and immigration lawyers gathered on Tehama Street in San Francisco, after they said immigrants received text messages from Immigration and Customs Enforcement telling them to “check-in” there.
“We expect they were planning detentions at check-ins,” said Sanika Mahajan, director of Community Engagement and Organizing at Mission Action, an immigrant advocacy group in San Francisco’s Mission District. “[ICE] have had to change tactics because of the people that have been showing up in large numbers to try to stop detentions.”
Camille Taiara, a volunteer with the National Lawyers Guild, said the doors to the offices were closed and that people who had shown up for the check-in didn’t know what to do.
“The people who are reporting here all have immigration cases with the court, so they’re trying to do the right thing,” said Taiara. “They say these people are criminals … but there’s no due process and it’s been shown that the vast majority of people they are grabbing and detaining and sending God-knows-where have no criminal records.”
“Basically, it’s state terror,” Taiara added.
ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gov. Newsom announced Friday that the California Highway Patrol and the state’s Office of Emergency Services would pre-deploy personnel to cities across the state ahead of the No Kings protests.
“California has zero tolerance for those who plan to take advantage of peaceful demonstrations with violence,” Newsom said. “We’re pre-deploying resources to maintain safety — and we will prosecute those who break the law.”
Newsom added that all eight of CHP’s Special Response Teams, consisting of 700 officers, were staged throughout the state.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie also announced Friday that he was activating the emergency operations center, where several city agencies, including law enforcement and emergency services, would be coordinating the city’s response.
Lurie was flanked by the police chief, the sheriff, the district attorney and the head of the department of emergency management, many of whom stressed that law enforcement will arrest anybody who breaks the law.
KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara, Attila Pelit, Sara Hossaini, Vanessa Rancaño and Brian Krans contributed to this story, which will be updated throughout the day.
