The Transportation Security Administration “tipped off” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers of a mother and daughter’s detention order, leading to their violent — and highly publicized — detainment at the San Francisco International Airport on Sunday, the New York Times reported this week.
On Sunday around 10 p.m., Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Lopez of Guatemala were heading from San Francisco to Miami to see a relative, the outlet reported Tuesday. But the family never made it out of SFO: Footage shows that ICE agents in plainclothes restrained the mother in front of her young daughter as she wailed and cried, causing outrage both in person and online. Multiple bystanders shouted at the officers and begged them to release her, but their pleas were ignored. Instead, the mother was dragged off in a wheelchair alongside her daughter, who was surrounded by several officers.
SFO press representatives previously told SFGATE that they were not involved with or notified about the enforcement in advance. While the mother entered the country illegally, she had no criminal record, the outlet said. In the wake of the video, several California representatives have criticized the Donald Trump administration’s flagrant use of ICE agents in the U.S.
“Trump promised to go after the worst of the worst, yet ICE agents are targeting our neighbors and kids with impunity,” California Rep. John Garamendi posted on X.
“The violence needs to end,” he continued. “ICE needs to be reined in today.”
Similarly, state Sen. Scott Wiener criticized ICE for “terrorizing” the mother and daughter — and it’s possible that we’ll see many more of these scenes unfold at U.S. airports in the coming months.
In December 2025, the New York Times reported that TSA is providing names on passenger lists to the agency to help it locate and detain individuals with deportation orders, turning airports into what immigration advocates have described as “hunting grounds for ICE.” One specific immigration enforcement office in Laguna Niguel, the Pacific Enforcement Response Center, is reportedly a driving force behind this broad information-sharing program.
According to the PERC’s website, it “protects and defends the United States by sharing timely and relevant ICE information with ERO field offices and law enforcement partners nationwide, issuing immigration detainers/request for notification on high-priority and high-risk criminal aliens.” In an informational video, Brian DeMore, the PERC’s director at the time, said that the department processes over 200,000 leads per year, targeting individuals who “pose the greatest threat to our communities.”
“This practice does nothing but terrorize communities and punish people for simply living their lives,” Murad Awawdeh, the president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in response to the December 2025 Times report. “No one should have to worry that an airline trip to visit family or take a vacation could lead to being handcuffed and deported.”
Awawdeh added: “Every American should be equally worried that the erosion of immigrants’ rights is the canary in the coalmine signalling the erosion of all of our rights.”
ICE and TSA press representatives did not respond to SFGATE’s request for more information before the time of publication.