A dozen protesters assembled around a Smarte Carte rental dock outside the International Terminal earlier this month to decry San Francisco International Airport and denounce its leaders for submitting to the Trump administration. Travelers wheeling luggage cocked their heads to the side to read the signs about Immigration and Customs Enforcement at SFO.
Some of the protesters wore handcuffs around their wrists to illustrate the rash of immigrant arrests at the airport, but the symbol seemed to better reflect SFO’s response to those arrests.
Since ICE began showing up in airports around the country earlier this year, SFO officials insist that their hands are tied. Federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, operate outside SFO’s jurisdiction. Airport spokesperson Doug Yakel previously said the airport isn’t even notified of arrests that occur inside its own terminals.
Travelers arriving at San Francisco International Airport on Sept. 16, 2026, were greeted by protesters. (Silas Valentino/SFGATE)
As SFO remains overmatched by the Feds, disturbing and sometimes violent ICE arrests are becoming more frequent. A Bay Area mother was apprehended in March as her young daughter watched from inside Terminal 3. In July, a San Francisco resident was arrested in Terminal 1 after returning on a domestic flight. They represent a fraction of the 25 people – 19 of whom hold green cards – detained at SFO during the first six months of the year.
The airport doubles as a cage for immigrant detentions during the second Trump presidency. Behind an airport in Florida, SFO has the highest number of cases where a traveler was held for an extended period before an ICE transfer.
The protesters this month and other activists are now rejecting the airport’s hands-off approach. During the past two Airport Commission meetings at City Hall, speakers pleaded with airport Director Mike Nakornkhet to adopt specific passenger protection measures.
“I travel widely. I thought SFO was one of the two or three best airports I’ve ever been in. Plenty of services, easy to navigate, easy to park, easy public transit, and it was safe. But not anymore,” Ruth Radetsky, a former high school teacher, told airport commissioners during the latest meeting. “… Instead, for far too many of our friends, neighbors and colleagues, our SFO has become a dangerous place where ICE roams freely.”
With every traveler arrested, the city of San Francisco, and its profitable enterprise SFO, appears powerless in its response to the Trump administration. The relationship between the two is complicated, but it’s clear which one has yielded to the other in this divisive moment.
The federal government, which has shown little restraint in punishing its critics, has frequently flexed its muscle over the airport in recent months. In March, the Federal Aviation Administration unexpectedly cut the number of landings allowed per hour by almost half, exasperating delays and angering travelers. Though the FAA cited safety as a reason for changing its policy, in April, the Department of Homeland Security threatened to restrict international flights over San Francisco’s sanctuary city policies. And then there’s the potential threat of withholding federal funding, which the airport relies on for its various runway and improvement projects.
An ICE agent in LaGuardia Airport in March 2026. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
Though SFO’s transformation into a venue for trapping people is not unique – ICE arrests are escalating at airports across the country – the San Francisco Chronicle found that so far this year, SFO had the second-highest number of detentions that lasted longer than three days and ended with an ICE transfer. Miami International Airport had the most. (SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
Not everyone in San Francisco is accepting the passive response to the Trump administration. Public pushback challenging SFO is brewing, appearing in the form of several protests on the airport’s sidewalks or expressed in under two minutes during the bi-monthly meetings of the Airport Commission, which establishes policies for airport operation. (Nakornkhet, the airport director, oversees its day-to-day operations.)
Speakers like Radetsky dominated the public comment period at the past two meetings by demanding that the airport step up its protections. The fervor is expected to continue at the next meeting on Oct. 6 at 9 a.m.
Among the calls to action are two direct measures. One is to challenge the administration in court by leaning into the city’s longtime sanctuary law. SFO is an enterprise department of the city of San Francisco, and the ordinance, which has been in effect since 1989, prohibits the airport from assisting ICE. At the latest meeting, Claudia Zeiler, a member of the progressive organization Indivisible, asked that Nakornkhet and commissioners publicize any report or opinion from the city attorney’s office about applying sanctuary law protections at SFO.
Mike Nakornkhet, SFO’s director. (Jeff Del Rio/Courtesy SFO)
City Attorney David Chiu has previously signaled a willingness to defend sanctuary jurisdictions. After the Trump administration attempted to pull funding from cities and states that had enacted such policies, Chiu led the challenge with four other jurisdictions by filing a lawsuit in federal court last year. The case is ongoing.
Yakel clarified that the airport started consulting with the city attorney’s office about airport jurisdiction as soon as ICE enforcement began ramping up.
In an email, city attorney spokesperson Jen Kwart added that Chiu’s office is unable to comment on the discussions over jurisdiction or share meeting details, citing confidentiality under “attorney client privilege.”
The other specific call to action encourages the airport to install signs ahead of security to warn people who are unaware that airlines are sending traveler reservation data to the Department of Homeland Security in advance of all flights. This trove of traveler information is passed around to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE, which can deploy agents to ambush travelers before or after a flight inside a terminal.
Yakel told SFGATE that the airport is currently reviewing options for new signs that publicize immigration and legal resources, but longtime travelers rights activist Edward Hasbrouck cast doubt on the strength and effectiveness.
“There’s a difference between ‘information on immigration rights and resources’ and actionable warnings about specific threats to travelers. We asked for signs ‘warning that data provided to airlines, even for domestic flights, will be passed on by airlines to TSA and/or CBP and by them to ICE,'” Hasbrouck said in an email. “This is what travelers aren’t aware of and need to know.”
Protesters outside the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport on Sept. 16, 2026. (Silas Valentino/SFGATE)
Hasbrouck was among the group protesting outside the international terminal last week. Another protester held a poster that said “No ICE Jail at SFO,” referencing the detention center located directly beneath their marching feet.
The facility was largely unknown until the Trump administration demanded an increase in deportations. Since January, more than 400 people have been detained in international airports across the country as federal agencies under DHS exchange traveler data.
The 3,000-square-foot detention center, also called an “in-transit lounge,” is overseen by CBP and located in the bowels of the International Terminal. Two sets of doors bookend the otherwise cheerful arrivals hall for international travelers who have just landed in San Francisco.
On Wednesday, families reunited in pockets throughout the corridor. A man held a bouquet eagerly watching each traveler trickle in, while a group of European tourists gathered around a guide with hulking luggage by their side. Children darted past a couple clutched together.
It was as though the opening scene from “Love Actually” had come to life in San Francisco. But the joy was tarnished by the fact that an immigration detention facility designed to prevent moments like these was just beyond the hall of beaming faces.
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This article originally published at As SFO submits to Trump, SF activists demand city leaders fight back.