Iryna Gorb, a 38-year-old Ukrainian woman who has lived in the United States for 16 years, was arrested by plainsclothes federal officers on the evening of July 22 at San Francisco International Airport as she returned from a trip to Portland.
A video of the incident posted on social media shows a woman on the ground, in distress, yelling “you’re choking me, they’re fucking ICE … stop, stop, let me go … please help me, leave me alone.”
A bystander can be heard saying “What are you arresting her for?”
A comment by the Instagram account “stopicenet” says the Ukranian woman was promptly pushed away in a wheelchair by the federal agents, a tactic observed before in San Francisco.
A statement from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson shared with Mission Local said that when officers approached Gorb, “she attempted to flee and resisted arrest.”
The spokesperson for DHS said Gorb lawfully entered the country in 2010 on a visa that allowed her to stay until 2011, and that she has overstayed her visa since.
Immigration attorneys say the arrest may be a part of the ramped-up immigration enforcement taking place nationwide in the past month. The daily rate of ICE arrests nationwide in June was over 1,300, the highest in any month of the second Trump administration. From July 1- 11, that number increased to a record 1,474 arrests per day, according to an analysis of federal data by Syracuse professor and data analyst Austin Kocher.
Andy Eblin, a friend of Gorb’s for 13 years, said he received a call at around 11:30 p.m. on July 22, and heard Gorb on the line. She told him she was calling from the Stockton ICE field office.
Eblin says his friend, who has lived in San Francisco for a decade and works at Better Half Cafe in Polk Gulch, asked him to tell her job she couldn’t come to work, let the people she was cat-sitting for know she wouldn’t be able to make it, and get her neighbor to water her plants.
“She is very tough,” said Eblin.
Around 15 of Gorb’s friends, he said, are working together to keep track of her and work with a lawyer to assist her through the process.
Gorb is now at the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert, according to a screenshot of the ICE locator shared by her friend Laurence Harrison.
Eblin said that Gorb was adamant about standing up to ICE and has been vocal on social media about opposing immigration arrests.
“Her arrest is just one example that is part of a bigger pattern,” said Eblin.
Milli Atkinson, an immigration attorney who directs the Immigrant Legal Defense Program for the San Francisco Bar Association, called Gorb’s arrest “upsetting and concerning.” She warned that immigrants with pending immigration cases and work permits may consider themselves legal if they have temporary status. But if they are not citizens, she said, they should be cautious when traveling through U.S. airports.
Atkinson said surveillance technologies, including facial recognition and other automated systems, are being used in airports to find and track individuals. Given that TSA is a federal agency, she said, “It’s very easy for ICE to use the airport as a place to find people and immediately arrest them.”
“Anyone flying who is not a citizen may want to check in with an attorney to help them assess risk,” Atkinson advised.
What immigrants in S.F. need to know now: court locations, asylum fees and procedures
When an ICE arrest is suspected or observed, attorneys and advocates advise immigrants and their friends and family members to call the rapid response line of the county where the immigrant who was arrested lives. In San Francisco that number is 415-200-1548.
The California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (CCIJ) website has a list of local rapid response numbers.
This story was updated at 4pm to reflect a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
