“For ICE agents to be at SFO, deporting someone with a child and engaging in pretty violent behavior towards that person, it is so disgusting and unacceptable. We want ICE to get the hell out,” state Sen. Scott Wiener said Monday, speaking to reporters outside of SFO’s international terminal.
According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, the woman and her daughter were arrested at the airport and were being “escorted to the international terminal for processing” when the woman tried to flee. The family had a final order of removal from an immigration judge in 2019, according to the DHS spokesperson.
SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said in a statement that the agents were “transporting two individuals on an outbound flight when this incident occurred,” though DHS did not clarify if the woman had been arrested prior to arriving at the airport.
Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement on social media that he found the incident upsetting but believes it was an isolated event.
“We have no reason to believe there is broader federal immigration enforcement at SFO,” he wrote.
The detention comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are deployed to more than a dozen U.S. airports, a move that the Trump administration said is meant to supplement security staffing during a partial government shutdown that has led to long waits for air travelers across the country.
Transportation Security Administration employees have been working without pay since DHS funding lapsed in February, and now many are calling out sick or resigning, according to the agency. SFO has privately contracted security screeners, who are not affected by the lapse in federal funding.
