A dozen or more activists made their case at the City Hall on Tuesday to urge the Airport Commission to stop federal immigration enforcement at SFO, but they were soon disappointed: Airport leaders say their hands are tied, and they cannot curtail federal agents.
“While local municipalities typically own physical airport properties, federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security have extensive regulatory authority over U.S. airports,” said Mike Nakornkhet, the airport director, at today’s meeting. “The city and county of San Francisco and its Airport Commission do not have the authority to regulate such activities.”
The activists were most concerned with the warrantless arrests that have occurred at San Francisco International Airport. Most recently, on July 23, Iryna Gorb, a 38-year-old from Ukraine, was violently arrested at the airport and detained, and footage of the incident went viral. Gorb is still in immigration detention.
“SFO does not have to allow ICE free rein of the airport, especially outside customs and immigration areas,” advocate Edward Hasbrouck, who has been working on airline privacy issues for 29 years, said during the meeting.
Most airline passengers are not aware that when they purchase a plane ticket to travel within the United States, the information they share with airlines is then sent to the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection — and, beginning last year, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
That data-sharing has contributed to an increase in immigration arrests at airports across the country.
As Mission Local has previously reported, activists, spearheaded by Hasbrouck, question whether the airport is doing enough to stop warrantless immigration arrests. The airport director, for his part, says SFO does not have the legal authority to limit federal agents’ enforcement.
Activists asked the commission today to disclose and publicly review its contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and to “minimize collaboration, data sharing and access to airport premises by Department of Homeland Security staff.”
“San Francisco is a sanctuary city. SFO should be a sanctuary airport, to the maximum extent permitted by law,” said Hasbrouck.
Speakers also suggested the commission order the posting of signs at the airport informing travelers of their rights and warning that data provided to airlines is passed on to TSA, CBP, and ICE.
Doug Yakel, the airport spokesperson, told Mission Local that SFO is considering adding such signage. He doubled down on the airport director’s statements, saying SFO’s legal team believes it cannot stop federal agencies from conducting enforcement at the airport.
Still, activists urged the commission to bar federal officers from using areas of the airport that are not under federal jurisdiction.
“People are getting kidnapped out of our airport — it is clear the commission has been asleep at the switch as it pertains to the sanctuary city ordinance,” said Hasbrouck.
After the meeting, a new page was added to the airport website providing resources to support immigrants, including a mention of the Rapid Response Hotline as well as the city’s immigrant support hub.
““San Francisco is a sanctuary city. SFO should be a sanctuary airport, to the maximum extent permitted by law,” said Hasbrouck.”
Hasbrouch is naive. The security screening, border control and customs operations of any airport are under direct federal control. and of course that trumps any local jurisdiction’s claims.
As an aside SFO isn’t even in San Francisco county. It is in San Mateo county.
I believe that it is fairly well known that people with outstanding warrants or who are under suspicion of crimes should not travel by air, either domestically or internationally.
SFO welcomes ICE thugs to arrest poor people even as they build a special terminal exclusively for rich people. That’s modern America in a nutshell.
If they were really poor, they wouldn’t even be flying in airplanes, now would they? It helps if you think about things first before you speak.
It’s called thumbing your nose at the laws of the land. Pretty common for this crowd.