Federal officers arrested two people at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night, according to officials.
A video posted to social media showed a woman on her knees being detained.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested two people from a family that “has an outstanding final order of removal from an immigration judge since 2019.”
DHS said one of the arrestees tried to flee and resisted officers while being escorted to the international terminal for processing.
“ICE is working as quickly as possible to repatriate the family unit to their home country of Guatemala,” DHS stated.
The arrests were believed to be an “isolated incident,” SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said, adding that the airport has “no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO.”
“The airport’s role is to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the facility for all passengers and staff,” Yakel said in his statement. “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.”
The detention was unrelated to President Donald Trump’s announced plan to deploy ICE agents to over a dozen U.S. airports to help Transportation Security Administration with its personnel staffing shortages nationwide.
TSA screeners at SFO are private contractors who do not work for the agency.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie released the following statement on Monday:
“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.”
