SAN FRANCISCO — A high-profile arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night does not signal that the controversial agency is now patrolling the three Bay Area airports during a partial government shutdown, officials said Monday.
ICE agents made the arrest about 10:30 p.m. in an incident captured on video posted on social media. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s move to send ICE agents to other large U.S. airports, the incident sparked alarm and criticism Monday from local leaders.
The partial shutdown has not affected security lines at SFO, because the airport contracts out its services to a private company. TSA directly employs agents at the Oakland San Francisco Bay and San Jose Mineta International airports, but they, along with SFO, did not report higher-than-usual wait times Monday. Officials at all three airports said they had not fielded any reports of ICE agents at their facilities Monday.
“We understand federal officers were transporting two individuals on the outbound flight when this incident occurred,” airport spokesperson Doug Yakel said in an email. “We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO.”
Democratic Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Congressman Kevin Mullin, D-SF, in a joint statement called the arrest “heartbreaking.”
ICE did not immediately comment on the arrest or the presence of its agents at airports.
On Monday, agents began to deploy to airports in other parts of the nation, with media outlets reporting sightings at airports in New York, New Jersey, Texas and Louisiana.. The move came amid massive absences of Transportation Security Administration officials and hours-long security lines at some airports caused by a partial government shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security..
The arrest at SFO came before the deployment began.
“The airport’s role is to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the facility for all passengers and staff,” Yakel said of the arrest. “We were not involved in or notified in advance of this incident. Airport operations continued without disruption, and there was no impact to flights or passenger processing.”
Several people at the airport captured the arrest on video, which circulated on social media. Multiple videos showed a woman traveling with another younger female and ICE agents dragging her away as bystanders yell insults at the agents.
On the video, neither of the two men detaining the woman appear to be wearing or displaying any visible identification as police of any kind.
“The video of a mother being aggressively detained by ICE agents in front of her daughter at the San Francisco International Airport is yet another heartbreaking example of how Trump’s inhumane immigration enforcement is terrorizing communities across America,” Pelosi and Mullin said in their statement. “After killing people in our streets and detaining U.S. citizens, ICE has lost all credibility and trust with the public. We demand answers as to the mother’s and her child’s condition and the grounds for their detainment.”
Another video shows agents putting the woman into handcuffs as a young girl nearby cries.
It was not clear why the woman was taken into custody.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, wrote on social media that “ICE was at SFO (Sunday) night, terrorizing a mother while her daughter watched. So much for the ‘hey we’re sending ICE to airports to fill in for TSA’ BS.”
Yakel said SFO participates in the Screening Partnership Program, which contracts out security services to a qualified private company. Screeners at the airport have continued to be paid during the partial shutdown, and Yakel said the airport has not seen excessive lines.