A small group of activists opposed to immigration enforcement barricaded themselves in Mayor Todd Gloria’s office Friday, calling on him to take action regarding ICE.
The group sent messages and photos to various members of the media in the afternoon. The photos showed a list of demands posted in his office, along with two hastily written signs on the glass doors leading inside. They read “Welcome to the People’s Office.”
“A group of citizen activists has taken over Todd Gloria’s office. They are barricaded inside,” he activists said in a statement provided to Times of San Diego. “They are demanding that Gloria meet with them and send clear directives to SDPD regarding how they will protect the community from criminal actions by ICE agents.”
San Diego police, a photographer reported, were on scene and preparing to remove the activists, along with press from the area outside the mayor’s office, once City Hall closed at 5 p.m. Officers arrested at least some members of the activist group, he said.
At about that time, Gloria’s office issued a lengthy statement in which the mayor called the protesters’ conduct “unacceptable – full stop.”
He said a deputy chief of staff met with the activists last week and shared their concerns with him about Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Despite that, he said the group came to his office early Friday “demanding to meet with me and staged a sit-in. What transpired later went beyond peaceful protest.”
He alleged that they “chose to raid the front desk to my office, bang on the doors in ways that intended to force entry and then barricaded the doors, creating a public safety hazard.”
“We will always protect the right to peaceful protest,” Gloria concluded. “But we must also protect city employees, public facilities and the ability of residents to access essential services without fear and intimidation.”
The San Diego Police Department did not respond to queries about the barricade.
Protesters interrupted Gloria’s Jan. 15 State of the City speech, some of them focused on his role in responding to ICE. Immigration actions have come under increasing scrutiny since an ICE officer shot and killed a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, two weeks ago.
Gloria answered those protesters, who were escorted from City Council chambers, where the speech was held, by calling Good’s death a murder and mentioning his concerns over the May 30 ICE raid on South Park’s Buona Forchetta.
He addressed the issue again in Friday’s statement, saying he has “been unequivocal and public about where I stand on their issue. In my State of the City address last week, and through the executive order I signed in July, I made it clear that the San Diego Police Department does not participate in federal immigration enforcement. That policy is in writing, it is enforced, and it is exactly what these protesters are asking for.”
The protesters in attendance for his speech – at least one of whom was among the activists at City Hall Friday – also were angered by his apparent refusal to meet directly with them. One yelled, “You’re afraid of us. All we’re trying to do is meet with you and you won’t meet with us.”
Adrian Childress contributed to this report.
Updated 6:35 p.m. Jan. 23, 2026
