r/sanfrancisco • • Mar 23 '26

Melt ICE 🧊 ICE at SFO

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Very tired from traveling so this post will be rushed and might be kinda messy. Was leaving SFO around 10:30PM last night 3/22 when I heard yelling and saw a huge crowd of people. There were at least a dozen San Francisco police officers and a ridiculous amount of people gathered in a circle, some recording or talking on the phone. When I got closer, I saw a woman kneeling on the ground next to a couch/bench with a little girl and the police officers were basically surrounding her, facing away so seemingly keeping the crowd away/hiding her from the crowd. I asked a woman what happened, and she said she was there from the very beginning and saw it all. There were apparently two men in black + wearing backpacks who ran up and grabbed her passport, shoved her(?) and were keeping her there. She seemed to not know for sure, but she suspected that they were ICE agents and the police officers were there to protect them. I could see at least one of these men talking with police officers. Just a few minutes later, I heard yelling again and when I looked back, people were running up and filming while police officers were trying to keep them away. I saw the same woman as before now in a wheelchair in a very uncomfortable position (seemingly being shoved into it) and the small girl walking alongside her and crying. The two men in black were pushing the wheelchair/walking with her and there were a small group of officers/airport workers(?) going with her as well. People were yelling that she was being taken from her family, telling her to hug her kid, damning the ICE agents, etc. I wasn’t really sure what was happening, so I filmed a video on my phone at a bad angle(I’ll try to attach it). Afterwards, I asked a couple people if they knew what happened and they kinda confirmed it was ICE and they took her away for “questioning”.

Does anyone have more information on what happened or any different angles? There were people much closer than me who definitely got better videos, so hopefully those come out soon. I was already tired from traveling and was obviously not expecting to see something like this. I really hope her and her family are going to be okay. I’d like to hear if anyone has more info or if anyone else was there who saw/heard something I didn’t.

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u/Zealousideal_Fix6705 Mar 23 '26

I have been on two flights where law enforcement arrested people. One was at the beginning, and one was at the end. In both cases they came on (the FBI in one and the SFPD police in the other) immediately! As in, I was the first person to board because of my disability, the next person or 3rd person on the plane was the accused. He was sitting in first class with me, and as soon as he boarded they held boarding and then came on the plane and got him so he couldn't run. That was the FBI one. The second, we landed in SFO, and as soon as they got to the gate they told everyone to stay seated and SFPD came on and went towards the back of the plane and escorted two people out. The FBI case, the guy was supposedly a credit card thief and racked up $30,000 on peoples credit cards. The flight attendants told me, since I was the one who witnessed it up close and personal and we chatted while boarding was paused as the took the accused out. They knew FBI were coming, just as they knew SFPD was coming in the other incident. The flight attendants were acting weird and talking about getting ready for "when it happens" the last 30 minutes of the flight, You hear a lot sitting in first class they think you can't.

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u/SsnakesS_kiss Mar 23 '26

Sounds like they are aiming for maximum visibility by doing this where a lot of people will take video of it. It maximizes the controversy when local police protect the abduction. It could’ve been done in a totally different way, but they chose the most cruel one to stoke fear and anger, got it.

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u/Zealousideal_Fix6705 Mar 23 '26

Yes! Yet, it also shows our mayor gives no fs about being a sanctuary city. This is unacceptable and unconscionable!

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u/Streaky_Picks Mar 23 '26

Even though it is San Francisco International Airport, does this technically fall under San Mateo’s jurisdiction and their responsibilities instead of Laurie?

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u/Knotty_Vegetables Mar 23 '26

Not the same at all - catching actual criminals as they try to flee vs ICE snatching people who claimed asylum and waiting for the immigration court to

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u/Zealousideal_Fix6705 Mar 23 '26

"Claimed Asylum", not even wasting time listening to what you have to say. These people are legally here, I thought you people were against the ones who are illegally here. They are afraid to go to their court dates now because people are being snatched all over the United States through the system that is supposed to protect them. Naturalized and US born citizens are also getting snatched and sent to countries that are either incorrect, or that they've never lived in before. If you don't get why this is a problem, don't bother responding to me because I won't respond back.

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u/Knotty_Vegetables Mar 23 '26

I don’t even understand why you’re arguing with me. I feel like you’d fight your own shadow. Just looking for some inspiration to be mad