Supervisor Bilal Mahmood makes a speech as hospital workers hold signs in support of the Stand Up For SF campaign during a press conference at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in San Francisco on Wednesday, Jan 21, 2026. Stand Up For SF campaign strives to protect public services in San Francisco.
Minh Connors/For the S.F. Chronicle
After a dramatic video of an immigration arrest at San Francisco International Airport went viral earlier this week, two local lawmakers are floating a new law that would require police officers to ask federal agents to provide proof of identification.
Supervisors Bilal Mahmood and Chyanne Chen, who are behind the proposal, said the legislation aims to bring more transparency to federal law enforcement operations in the city.
It would require officers to try to “verify the credentials of the on-scene federal lead-agent, supervisor, or agent in charge,” when it is safe to do so, according to a news release. It would also require the officers to capture their attempts to verify the agents’ identities on body-worn cameras.
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The legislation is a reaction in part to Sunday’s viral incident in which a mother was detained by two plain-clothed federal immigration agents at SFO as her 9-year old daughter looked on, sobbing. One woman who witnessed the arrest told the Chronicle that bystanders asked the immigration agents to prove their identities, which the officers did not do in the video.
After the woman at the airport was taken into custody, San Francisco police officers arrived on scene and spoke with the agents, the Chronicle reported. It was not clear if they had asked to see the agents’ credentials. In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for the department said officers “were not involved in the incident but remained at the scene to maintain public safety.”
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San Franciscans should know when agents are operating on city property, Mahmood said.
Mahmood and Chen announced Friday that they had asked the city attorney to draft the legislation, which would enshrine an existing police policy in city law.
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“We felt we needed to increase accountability of our own protocols and make sure they are in law,” Mahmood said.
The proposal comes as some residents have pressed San Francisco leaders to do more to make sure police and sheriff officers are complying with the city’s sanctuary city policy, which bars police from assisting in federal immigration enforcement.
“People are terrified, just in general,” Chen said, adding she found the footage of the arrest troubling on a personal level.
“As a mom, as an immigrant, this could be me,” she said.
Representatives for the police department did not respond to a request for comment about Chen and Mahmood’s proposal.
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Mahmood acknowledged that the proposal “is not the total solution” to residents’ fears about immigration enforcement in the city and that city leaders are limited in their ability to restrict federal agents’ movements and actions.
Still, “there is an onus on us as elected officials to do everything in our power to make sure residents feel safe,” he said.
In December, Mahmood introduced legislation to create “ICE-free zones” in San Francisco, prohibiting federal agencies from using public property to conduct enforcement actions.
“We want to make sure San Francisco, the people, can continue to trust in the departments and agencies that are servicing the people in the city,” Chen said.
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