Community speaks out after drag performer detained by ICE in downtown SF

San Francisco’s LGBTQ community is speaking out after a beloved drag performer was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a federal courthouse downtown.

Hilary Rivers was detained June 26, at a scheduled immigration hearing downtown, 48 Hills reported. (The outlet reported that Rivers uses he/him pronouns, but it and other outlets are not reporting Rivers’ non-drag name.)

ICE has been arresting people both at its field office at 630 Sansome Street and at the San Francisco Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street. President Donald Trump’s budget act, which he signed Friday, triples ICE’S budget, and earmarks $140 billion for immigration enforcement. ICE agents pointed rifles and used pepper spray on about 20 protesters trying to block their entry to 100 Montgomery on June 8, Mission Local reported.

Rivers, who was born in El Salvador but raised in Guatemala, was seeking asylum in the United States, alleging persecution in his home country. He was admitted through the Customs and Border Patrol’s One program, a mobile app that allowed asylum seekers to schedule appointments. After the program was canceled by the second Trump administration, all those who entered the country via the app had their parole status revoked.  

In an increasingly common tactic among immigration enforcers, Rivers was detained while leaving court after a hearing in which a government motion to dismiss his asylum case was denied. He had just participated in the Miss & Mr. Safe Latino 2025 Pageant the previous day.

A joint Instagram post from the accounts of Rivers and Galería de la Raza, according to a translation from Spanish, states that Rivers “hopes to be an example of tolerance in her San Francisco community. Although she grew up with discrimination, her message centers on queer joy where everyone deserves to be happy as they are. She debuted on Guatemala stages at age 17, but Hilary Rivers' real origin was at a contest where she appeared with a cart of pupusas, giving her the nickname ‘la pupusera.’”

The post adds Rivers debuted in San Jose and “has been doing drag intermittently for 10 years.”

Galería de la Raza held a letter-writing event June 30 so that supporters could write letters to Rivers, who is being held at the Golden State Annex, an ICE facility in Kern County, California, Mission Local reported.

Galería de la Raza Executive Director Ani Rivera didn’t return multiple requests for comment for this report; but among those present was District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder. A queer woman who represents the Mission neighborhood, Fielder told the B.A.R. that, “The community came together in this really difficult moment to support Hilary to show our support.”

“This case, and so many ICE enforcement actions and detentions, are deeply troubling,” Fielder continued. “ICE is repeatedly denying our community, our friends, our families rights. We are fighting for Hilary's release, for the right to seek asylum, and for the protection of due process. And to meet this unprecedented need, I am pressing the mayor's office to increase the city's commitment to funding local immigration legal services.”

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s proposed balanced budget cut funding for the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, a move that amid the Trump crackdown has been criticized by Fielder and activists. In announcing his budget plan, Lurie touted funding in both the City Administrator’s office and the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development for immigrant legal services and the LGBT Asylum Project. (The Board of Supervisors is expected to adopt the city’s budget July 15.)

Xochitl, an immigrant activist and drag artist, told the B.A.R., “I feel scared and furious.”

“Hilary did nothing wrong; she presented herself to her hearing, abiding by law. How are we supposed to trust a system that pulls out the rug right beneath us?” asked Xochitl. “It makes no sense. I saw her perform the night before she was detained and it was such a moving number, I saw myself in her, I saw her struggle as more than a queer person or an immigrant but as a human wanting respect.”

Xochitl explained the challenges that many, struggling in America’s broken immigration system, find themselves in.

“We do everything right, we stay out of trouble, we work long hours even multiple jobs, we strive to be the perfect immigrants but time and time again that takes us nowhere,” Xochitl stated. “Being undocumented is hard. No matter what we do we can never win. We do so much for this country and I love this country, I've been living here since I was 6. We just want to play by the rules and be left alone. … The San Francisco drag community stands united behind her.”

Honey Mahogany, a Black, queer trans person who is head of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives, promoted the letter-writing event. 

“I am deeply concerned for our dear community member Hilary and everyone else who is being targeted and swept up in these raids.” Mahogany told the B.A.R.

“People have the right to due process,” Mahogany continued. “When they are here, in this case legally, and working toward naturalization, we shouldn’t be treating them like criminals.”

Rivers isn’t the first Latin American LGBTQ asylum seeker whose case has become a flashpoint in Trump’s approach to immigrants. Andry Jose Hernández Romero, a Venezuelan gay makeup artist, was sent to an El Salvador mega prison this spring. Calls to bring attention to his case by naming him an honorary grand marshal of the San Francisco Pride parade were rebuffed, and his asylum case was dismissed in his absence.  

Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was returned to the U.S. from the megaprison after a U.S. Supreme Court order, described in a court filing violations of human rights there. A court filing last week recounted “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.” Abrego Garcia contends he was told by a prison official, “Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,” and that his head was shaved before he was struck with wooden batons as he was marched to his cell, where he was forced to kneel overnight.

With Rivers’ detention coming just as San Francisco Pride festivities were getting underway, the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration Committee had a statement of its own.

“San Francisco Pride vehemently rejects the continued attacks on immigrant communities by the federal administration, SCOTUS [Supreme Court] rulings, and the splintering of our communities by ICE on the basis of violations to due process and our city’s sanctuary policy,” the committee stated in a news release. “San Francisco is the vibrant city we know of today because of the contributions of immigrants – especially queer immigrants.”

Updated, 7/8/25: This article has been updated with comments from drag personalities.