Transportation Security Administration officials alerted immigration authorities before federal agents detained a mother and her 9-year-old daughter at San Francisco International Airport this week, according to a New York Times report published Tuesday.
Citing federal documents, The Times reported that TSA officials flagged Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, 41, and her daughter after they appeared on a passenger list for a Sunday flight from San Francisco to Miami. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents then used that information to locate them in Terminal 3, the newspaper reported.
The new details add to an incident that had already drawn widespread attention after video circulated online showing plainclothes agents restraining a crying woman while a child stood nearby in distress.
The Times reported that TSA shared Lopez-Jimenez’s travel information with ICE, a disclosure that raises fresh questions about how passenger data is used at airports, including SFO.
The report comes as the Trump administration expands the presence of immigration agents at airports nationwide during a partial federal shutdown that has increased wait times.
According to the Times, Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter had been ordered removed from the country in 2019 after she missed an immigration court hearing. The newspaper reported that TSA officials identified the pair on Friday and alerted ICE ahead of their planned Sunday trip.
Federal documents reviewed by the Times outline a rapid sequence of events after the arrest. At 10:51 p.m. Sunday, after Lopez-Jimenez was wheeled away from a crowd of stunned and vocal onlookers, she was booked into a holding room at the airport, according to the report.
By 7:50 p.m. Monday, she and her daughter had been transferred to a hotel in Texas.
They were checked out at 3 a.m. Tuesday, and just over five hours later were on a flight from Harlingen, Tx. bound for Guatemala, the Times reported.
The Department of Homeland Security said earlier this week that Lopez-Jimenez and the child had final removal orders and that she resisted arrest. DHS also said the confrontation at SFO was unrelated to the administration’s broader plan to deploy ICE agents to airports to assist during TSA staffing shortages.
Local officials have stressed that point. SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel previously told the Chronicle that airport officials were not notified in advance and that operations continued without disruption. Mayor Daniel Lurie also said there was no indication of broader immigration enforcement at the airport tied to the shutdown.
Still, the new details are likely to intensify criticism from Democrats and immigrant advocates, who have accused the administration of targeting families rather than dangerous offenders. Rep. John Garamendi, who said Lopez-Jimenez and her daughter lived in Contra Costa County, told The Times that “the real story here is the way in which databases are being used.”
SFO is not among the airports expected to receive ICE agents to support checkpoint operations during the shutdown. San Francisco International is one of a small number of U.S. airports that rely on private security contractors under federal oversight, rather than federally employed TSA screeners.