Student reporter thrown and later detained at Bay Area immigration protest

Student journalist Aarya Mukherjee was detained while covering an anti-deportation protest in San Francisco, California, on June 8, 2025. A police officer also grabbed Mukherjee by the arm earlier and threw him to the ground.

The protests were in solidarity with those that began in Los Angeles on June 6, following Trump administration immigration raids and the administration’s deployment of the California National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

The June 8 protests in San Francisco began that evening outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in the city’s North Beach neighborhood, Mukherjee told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. He was on assignment for The Daily Californian — the student-run newspaper of the University of California, Berkeley — alongside fellow student journalist Sam Grotenstein.

Approximately an hour and a half later, Mukherjee said, protests and police began confronting each other, with officers attempting to advance their line further away from the ICE office.

“I guess they were trying to isolate and protect the federal building that some people were spray-painting and hitting with various objects,” Mukherjee said of the police, adding that they were indiscriminately throwing protesters and striking them with batons. “They grabbed me and threw me by my arm, even though, again, I was press. I had press credentials. I was announcing that I was press.”

After a prolonged standoff with San Francisco police, Grotenstein said, the protest split and police pursued demonstrators through the streets until everyone was corralled using a law enforcement tactic called kettling.

In a post on the social platform X, Mukherjee wrote, “Breaking: SFPD corralled roughly 100 protesters near Bush and Montgomery announcing ‘You are all under arrest.’”

Approximately 30 minutes later, officers announced that people accompanied by minors and those with press credentials could leave. Mukherjee had a physical press pass and was allowed to exit the kettle. Grotenstein, who only had digital press credentials, was held for an additional 30 minutes until Mukherjee and the Daily Cal’s managing editor convinced police to release him.

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The following night, both Mukherjee and Grotenstein were similarly detained and both assaulted by police while covering further anti-deportation protests.

The Daily Cal condemned the detentions in a June 10 editor’s note, writing, “While our staffers were released after about an hour, their detainment prevented them from reporting on the events of the night and, most importantly, actively threatened their safety.”