Video of ICE arrest at San Francisco airport draws Democrats' anger

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Video of an immigration arrest at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage from local officials and Democratic candidates after footage showed federal officers detaining a crying woman as her child looked on. California Democrats said the incident added to their concerns about the administration’s push to place Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at airports during the partial government shutdown and a broader funding standoff affecting Department of Homeland Security operations.

The Department of Homeland Security said in an email that officers arrested Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Jimenez at the airport Sunday because the family had an outstanding final order of removal to Guatemala from 2019. The department said ICE planned to return the family to Guatemala and described the arrest as separate from the administration’s effort to deploy ICE officers to support the Transportation Security Administration as TSA staffing disruptions left travelers facing long lines.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco and a candidate for Congress, held a news conference Monday outside the airport to denounce the federal action. Wiener said, “We don’t want ICE here and when ICE descends on our communities, it only creates fear,” according to the video and transcript coverage of the event.

Several Democratic candidates for California governor also criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to the footage, linking the arrest to a decision by President Donald Trump to deploy ICE officers to short-staffed airports unless Democrats agreed to a bill to fund the department. Democrats have said they were waiting for the administration to make reforms after a crackdown in Minnesota that was followed by fatal shootings of two protesters.

San Francisco International Airport said it was not among the airports where ICE officers were expected. Doug Yakel, an airport spokesman, said in a statement that the airport believed the arrest was an isolated incident and that the airport had “no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO,” adding that the airport uses private contractors to screen passengers and therefore was not affected by the current impasse in Congress.

DHS said that during processing at the international terminal, Lopez-Jimenez tried to flee and resisted law enforcement officers. The department said the officers typically have offices or processing facilities at international airport terminals and that the family would be handled there for removal processing.

The footage circulating online showed officers detaining the woman while bystanders asked to see their identification badges. The AP reported that the officers were not in uniform in the videos and that one officer tells the crowd to step back; other clips show a crowd of onlookers filming, including footage that appears to show the woman being pushed away in a wheelchair while her child walks behind.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, also a Democrat, said the incident was “upsetting” and that he and a spokesperson for the airport believed it was isolated and not indicative of a broader immigration crackdown, according to AP reporting.