Viral SFO Airport ICE Arrest Was Not Part Of The New TSA Deployment Program

A woman was detained by immigration authorities at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday night around 10:30 p.m. in terminal 3 by gate E2.

She was in the gate area with a young girl. Plain clothed men apparntly with ICE approached her. There was a confrontation around her passport or travel documents. She ended up on the ground, and a crowd formed and began filming. She was eventually moved in a wheelchair while the child cried nearby. At least a dozen police officers arrived on the scene, doing crowd control. It’s unclear what happened to the child afterward.

This is being broadly misunderstood as part of ICE deploying to airports, but it is not related.

1. San Francisco’s airport is not one of the 13 that are currently part of that program
   
2. SFO airport security screeners have to continued to be paid, because the airport uses private contractors rather than TSA.
   
3. The incident occurred Sunday night, while the ICE airport deployment began on Monday.

Another angle, lots of Democrat rabids melting down. pic.twitter.com/kxekJoEkYs

— Kim "Katie" USA (@KimKatieUSA) March 23, 2026

Another angle from the scene: Rabid Responders screaming at ICE agents while police surround them to let the agents do their job.

The maroon-jacket soy boy in the center?

Same guy from the other video bitching and moaning nonstop. pic.twitter.com/DVKsL4D2Yh

— Kim "Katie" USA (@KimKatieUSA) March 23, 2026

Airports are easy places for law enforcement to nab people. Travel records tell them where the person will be – the airport, time and even gate. They’ve gone through security and been screened for weapoins. And they’re a choke point without easy routes of escape. Immigration enforcement has been more visible and more aggressive, but the deployment of ICE to airports actually distracts from this rather than incident being a part of this effort.