ICE Agents Detain Woman, Child at SFO, Sparking Outrage Over Local Police Role

ICE agents conducted an enforcement operation inside San Francisco International Airport Sunday, arresting a woman and her daughter in the secure area of Terminal 3 — and the footage of it spread to millions of screens before dawn.

Footage caught on multiple bystanders' cameras shows plainclothes ICE officers restraining a woman who was kneeling on a bench, as her young daughter cried nearby. One video, posted to Reddit, shows officials pushing a woman in a wheelchair as a girl walks behind. Another video, taken from a different angle, shows two apparent officers detaining the woman, holding her down on the floor. Bystanders can be heard demanding that the men identify themselves; the officers did not respond to those requests.

DHS confirmed that "on March 22, 2026, ICE officers arrested Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Jimenez at the San Francisco International Airport," adding that "the family has an outstanding final order of removal from an immigration judge since 2019." A DHS spokesperson said that "while being escorted to the international terminal for processing, Lopez-Jimenez attempted to flee and resisted law enforcement officers," and that "ICE is working as quickly as possible to repatriate the family unit to their home country of Guatemala."

SFO said it was blindsided. SFO spokesman Doug Yakel wrote: "The airport's role is to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the facility for all passengers and staff. 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." Yakel told local media that the airport was not notified in advance and was not involved, and that local officials said they believed federal agents were transporting the individuals for an outbound flight.

The question that immediately consumed city officials, attorneys, and at least one congressional candidate was not what ICE did, but what SFPD did while it watched. Social media videos show San Francisco police officers providing a buffer for federal agents as a crowd of angry travelers yells at them and records the interaction. Officers were called out about 10 p.m. to the airport because someone had called 911, and when they arrived, SFPD Officer Robert Rueca said officers realized it was an ICE action and remained on scene to "maintain public safety."

That explanation did not satisfy legal experts. Attorneys familiar with sanctuary city policy allege that SFPD's actions at the airport during the federal arrests may present a violation of the city's sanctuary ordinance and the police department's own policy directives. Angela Chan, assistant chief attorney at the San Francisco Public Defender's office, who helped write SFPD's immigration policy in 2020, was direct: "I was alarmed and horrified seeing these videos. Because it does show a dozen or more SFPD officers acting as security for ICE and doing precisely what we spent many months creating a policy to prohibit." A bystander who witnessed the arrests has already filed a complaint with the California Department of Justice, copying the San Francisco City Attorney on her email.

Mayor Daniel Lurie moved quickly to distance the city from the operation. "Like many San Franciscans, I found the incident at SFO last night upsetting. I have spoken to leaders at SFO and SFPD, and we believe this is an isolated incident. We have no reason to believe there is broader federal immigration enforcement at SFO. SFPD officers remained at the scene to maintain public safety and were not involved in the incident. Under our city's longstanding policies, local law enforcement does not participate in federal civil immigration enforcement. Those policies keep us safe and will not change as long as I'm mayor."

State Senator Scott Wiener held a press conference in response to the incident, reiterating that "ICE is not welcome in San Francisco or at San Francisco International Airport." Wiener said federal agents were "terrorizing" a woman and her daughter seen in the viral footage.

Saikat Chakrabarti, who is running against Wiener in the congressional race to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi, pointed to a question that neither SFO nor SFPD has yet answered on the record: "How did two unidentified ICE agents get behind security at SFO to do this arrest?" he tweeted. "Allegedly SFPD were on the scene providing cover for ICE — how is that ok?"

The detention was unrelated to President Trump's announced plan to deploy ICE agents to over a dozen airports to help the TSA with personnel staffing shortages nationwide. SFO, which has used private security rather than the TSA to screen passengers since 2005, said it does not expect ICE agents at its checkpoints.

The SFPD has not responded to specific questions regarding whether its officers' presence during the arrest violates departmental policy directives or the city's ordinance. How federal agents accessed the secured area of Terminal 3 in the first place remains unanswered.