TSA officials tip off ICE before arrest of Guatemalan mother at SFO: NYT
Community groups demand answers from SFPD, seen in viral ICE video at SFO
Community organizers with the Free SF Coalition held a protest Wednesday alleging San Francisco police illegally assisted ICE agents during an arrest at SFO.
SAN FRANCISCO - New details are emerging about the arrest of a Guatemalan national and her daughter at San Francisco International Airport last Sunday – an event that was documented on video and has been widely shared on social media.
TSA tips off ICE
What we know:
Transportation Security Administration officials alerted Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers days before the flight of Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and her 9-year-old daughter after the agency identified her as being under a deportation order, according to a report by The New York Times.
They were on their way to Miami when they were arrested in a highly visible manner, as several passersby noted what happened on their cell phones and then posted to TikTok and Instagram.
New airport deportation tactic
Big picture view:
The TSA-to-ICE pipeline appears to be a new tactic by the Trump administration, according to NYT reporter Hamed Aleaziz, who spoke with KTVU on Wednesday about his scoop.
"We found no indication that this type of information sharing happened in prior administrations, at least in furtherance of arrests taking place at American airports," he said. "But as far as whether or not it's a surprise, I mean, the Trump administration is really trying to bring together all these federal agencies and share as much information as possible from not only DHS, but also from the IRS."
He said he's uncovered a few similar cases like this, including in Utah and a woman visiting her family at Boston's Logan airport. Both were also arrested in this manner.
"Some of these arrests are clearly happening under the radar," Aleaziz said. "And without these videos, without this public kind of documentation of what's happening in the airports with these arrests, we have no way of knowing how many arrests have taken place as a result of this program which launched last spring. What's surprising is that we don't have the full data on how wide the scope is here."
The TSA did not immediately respond for comment on Wednesday about its practices.
Protesters allege SFPD violated sanctuary city policy
Community organizers with the Free SF Coalition held a protest Wednesday alleging San Francisco police illegally assisted ICE agents during an arrest at SFO.
The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office claims video evidence shows officers forming a perimeter to assist in the detention of a woman and her 9-year-old daughter.
The incident, which was caught on camera Sunday night, has initiated a formal complaint to the Department of Police Accountability by the group.
Angela Chan, Assistant Chief Attorney for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office, said she reviewed footage of the altercation and believes local law enforcement overstepped legal boundaries.
"I reviewed all of the videos, I re-reviewed the laws that I helped write," Chan said. "I believe what they did was they assisted with immigration enforcement by assisting with an arrest, a detention, and transportation for ICE."
She and others in the group filed a public records request to determine what information officers had before arriving at the scene and why a large number of officers were deployed.
However, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department maintained that the agency did not cooperate with federal agents. According to the department, officers responded to a 911 call at the airport and remained on-site solely to maintain public safety, asserting they had no prior knowledge of the ICE operation.
The controversy comes as Mayor Daniel Lurie reaffirmed the city's status as a sanctuary for immigrants during a Wednesday morning press conference.
"SFPD and any local law enforcement will not assist federal immigration enforcement and we will continue that policy for as long as I am mayor," Lurie said.
Final deportation
The backstory:
As to the particulars of the case, a judge ordered Angelina Lopez-Jimenez's deportation in 2019 following a court hearing she missed, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times. The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement that the mother had a final deportation order since then.
It remains unclear whether Lopez-Jimenez, who lived in Contra Costa County, was aware of the order at the time of her arrest.
Aleaziz also pointed out there are immigration rights advocates who have noted there are instances in which immigrants do not get their notices properly mailed to them, and they're just simply unaware of the hearing. Other times, immigrants purposely don't show up to court because they are trying to stay under the radar, he said.
ICE agents arrest woman at SFO, bystanders capture on video
An airport spokesperson said the ICE action was unrelated to President Trump's directive to deploy agents to airports nationwide to assist the TSA.
‘Despicable and outrageous’
What they're saying:
A fierce California critic of Trump and ICE chimed in almost immediately.
"The Trump Administration’s move to weaponize TSA in its mass deportation crusade — and turn our airports into deportation dragnets — is despicable and outrageous," California Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), said in a statement following the New York Times story. "This operation isn’t targeting the violent criminals that TSA has been flagging for years. Rather, TSA is ratting out women and children to ICE, who is violently arresting and deporting them at our airports. ICE has been given absurd quotas of people to terrorize, and they will stop at nothing to carry out their mission."
Wiener said it's unclear if this is the first time this has happened at SFO, but it's clear to him that "TSA’s close collaboration with ICE" means that any person without legal status "needs to think very carefully" before traveling through SFO or other airports.
Meanwhile, activists held a rally Wednesday at the airport to demand the San Francisco Police Department "cease and desist" from standing guard while ICE agents arrest travelers. SFPD said they do not ever assist ICE with immigration enforcements, but were called to help by 911 callers. They said they were present during the arrest to make sure things remained peaceful.
Mother and daughter were on a flight Tuesday morning bound for Guatemala, according to the New York Times.