California Democrats condemn immigration arrest at San Francisco airport

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California Democrats condemn immigration arrest at San Francisco airport

2026-03-24 07:08 Last Updated At：07:20

Video footage of federal officers detaining a crying woman at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to President Donald Trump's deployment of immigration officers to short-staffed airports during a partial government shutdown.

One video posted on social media showed a woman crying and yelling as officers held her down and attempted to handcuff her while her child looked on. The Department of Homeland Security said in an email that officers arrested Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and Wendy Godinez-Jimenez at the airport Sunday as the family had an outstanding final order of removal to Guatemala from 2019.

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco and candidate for Congress, held a news conference Monday outside the airport to denounce the actions of federal authorities. Several Democratic candidates for California governor also sharply criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to the video.

“We don’t want ICE here and when ICE descends on our communities, it only creates fear,” Wiener said.

On social media, the footage generated concerns over Trump's move to place ICE officers at airports as many Transportation Security Administration officers have quit or are calling out sick after weeks of working without pay. ICE officers were spotted Monday at several airports after Trump said he would deploy them unless Democrats agree to a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats say they are holding out until the administration makes reforms in the wake of a crackdown in Minnesota that led to the fatal shootings of two protesters.

San Francisco International Airport is not among airports where ICE officers are expected, airport officials said. That's because the airport uses private contractors to screen passengers so it is not affected by the current impasse in Congress.

“We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SFO,” airport spokesman Doug Yakel said in a statement.

While being escorted to the international terminal for processing, Lopez-Jimenez attempted to flee and resisted law enforcement officers, DHS said. The department typically has offices or processing facilities at international airport terminals. ICE plans to return the family to Guatemala, the statement said.

“This arrest occurred BEFORE ICE officers were even deployed to bolster TSA efforts to help American travelers who are facing hours long lines across the country,” the statement said.

In video of the detention, the officers ignored repeated requests by bystanders to see their identification badges. They were not in uniform, and at one point an officer tells the crowd to step back. Other videos show a sizable crowd of onlookers, many of them filming. One video appears to show the woman eventually being pushed away in a wheelchair with the child walking behind.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and a spokesperson for the airport said they believe this was an isolated incident and not indicative of a broader immigration crackdown. Lurie, a Democrat, called the incident “upsetting.”

2 pilots killed when jet collides with fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport

NEW YORK (AP) — An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said.

The impact severed the cockpit, and hurled a flight attendant — still secured to her seat — far from the crash site, her daughter told a Canadian TV station. The flight attendant survived.

The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane that had aborted its takeoff. Before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.

Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier,” the controller said. “I messed up.”

About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.

A key for investigators will be examining coordination of the airport’s air traffic and ground traffic at the time of the crash, said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. “This has been happening for years and sadly some of the most horrific air crashes in history happen on the ground at the airport.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said LaGuardia is “well-staffed” but faces a shortage of controllers. He said there are 33 certified controllers but the goal is to have 37. More than one controller was on duty at the time of the accident, he said.

“I can’t give specifics on what went wrong,” Duffy said, deferring to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. Canada also sent a team of investigators.

The runway where the crash happened is likely to be closed for “days” during the investigation, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Monday evening news conference. She said there was a “tremendous amount of debris” that investigators have to sift through.

Homendy said authorities recovered the plane's cockpit and flight data recorders and drove them to the agency's lab in Washington for analysis. Officials had to cut a hole in the aircraft's roof to get to the recorders, because its tail was on the ground, she said, adding that the cockpit voice recorder was not damaged.

Homendy said it was too early in the investigation to answer many questions about the accident, and more information was expected to be released Tuesday.

The crash shut down LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest hub — during what was already a messy time at U.S. airports because of a partial government shutdown.

Flights resumed Monday afternoon on one runway and with lengthy delays. The shutdown caused some disruptions at other airports, too, especially for Delta, which has a major presence at LaGuardia.

Airport security camera video shows a convoy of emergency vehicles traveling across the tarmac with their lights flashing in the moments before the plane lands, according to a recording of the video shared online.

While most of the vehicles appear to stop at the edge of the runway, the lead vehicle keeps going, directly into the path of the aircraft.

A person familiar with the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the video. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of an ongoing investigation.

The collision left cables and debris dangling from the mangled cockpit. Images show the fire truck flipped onto its side, with most of the damage to its back half.

Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, daughter Sarah Lépine told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.

Her survival is “a total miracle,” Lépine said. “I’m still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”

Passenger Rebecca Liquori said the plane hit turbulence while descending, and she then felt it brake hard and heard a loud boom.

“Everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding,” Liquori told News12 Long Island, a station where she once worked.

Liquori said passengers helped each other slide down a wing.

“I’m just happy to be alive,” said Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin’s baby shower. “I would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I’ve done countless times … ending like this.”

Passenger Clément Lelièvre credited the pilots' “incredible reflexes” with saving his life and others'. The pilots braked extremely hard just as the plane touched down, he said.

The pilot and copilot who died were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

Jeannette Gagnier, the great aunt of one of the pilots, identified him as Antoine Forest. Forest looked at her as a grandmother figure and always wanted to be a pilot, she said. His LinkedIn page showed he had worked for two airlines the past five years.

President Donald Trump called it a “terrible” situation. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement the accident was “deeply saddening.”

The Port Authority identified the two people in the fire truck as Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez. They suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Garcia said. One was expected to be released Monday while the other will stay in the hospital for observation, she said.

The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor,” said Garcia.

It was the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years, Garcia said.

There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to the airline. The flight originated at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.

Hours after the crash, the plane remained on the runway with its crumpled nose tilted upward.

The air traffic controller tried to warn the fire truck.

“Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop,” the transmission says. “Stop, Truck 1.” The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.

Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused long delays at airport security checkpoints in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.

The FAA has been chronically short on air traffic controllers for years. Former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said LaGuardia has not had perennial staffing problems, but the tower would have been lightly staffed during the overnight shift at the time of the crash.

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system designed to help keep track of planes and vehicles crossing the airport.

An alarm heard in the background of the air traffic control audio was likely from the system and would have alerted the tower to the potential collision, McCormick said.

“It’s an aid in a situation like this,” he said, but the system doesn’t know if someone has given clearance for a vehicle to cross a runway.

FAA statistics show there were 1,636 runway incursions last year.

The story has been updated to correct that the Port Authority video on trucks was put out last year, not last month.

Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak, Anthony Izaguirre and Mae Anderson in New York; Rob Gillies in Toronto; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.