Kwadwo, 57, had already gone through security at San Francisco International Airport and was waiting at his gate when the immigration agent showed up. A respiratory therapist here in the Bay Area, he was on his way to Dallas to visit his cousin.
Out of nowhere, he said, a man in plain clothes came up to him and asked to confirm his name. The man then identified himself as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, and told Kwadwo he was under arrest for overstaying his visa.
Kwadwo, who was born in Ghana and has lived in Daly City for the last eight years, recalled the encounter over a muffled phone line. He was calling from inside the Golden State Annex immigration detention center, outside of Bakersfield.
Then, Kwadwo said, three more men appeared suddenly and surrounded him. He was escorted to the arrivals area near baggage claim and there, in front of other travelers, the officers chained his feet, put another chain around his stomach, and finally chained his hands.
“To have chains around me as if I am the hardest criminal on earth,” said Kwadwo, who has no criminal record or even a minor traffic violation, “that was my first shock.”
He cried as the officers chained him. “It felt like a bad dream,” he said. Mission Local has given Kwadwo a pseudonym to protect him from retribution.
SFO: The latest frontier for immigration arrests
Kwadwo was detained by immigration agents at the airport over an expired student visa, according to court documents reviewed by Mission Local. He had applied for a green card and was rejected in June 2024. His first appeal was also rejected, but he filed a second that has been pending since May 2025.
Under the Trump administration, Customs and Border Protection has been arresting and detaining more travelers at airports across the country, including SFO. In some cases, customs has detained immigrants at the airport for days while deciding whether or not to admit them into the country.
But Kwadwo was flying domestically, something he had done before. And the trip to Dallas seemed important — his cousin was recovering from a stroke.
He was unaware, however, that domestic travel, once safe for immigrants with varying temporary or pending legal status, is now the latest frontier for ICE arrests. TSA has begun sharing passenger information with ICE and immigrants who have overstayed their visa or have any kind of precarious immigration status, are now at risk of arrest.
“There was a sea change, on a level that is remarkable, when it comes to domestic travel,” said Karl Kooth, a private immigration attorney in San Francisco who has been practicing law for 26 years. It is at the point, he said, where immigration attorneys are advising some clients, even green card holders, not to travel by plane at all.
On the day of his arrest, Kwadwo was transported from the airport to 630 Sansome, the federal immigration building downtown that used to house San Francisco’s immigration court. They took his shoes and his pants, he said, and he was moved into a holding cell.
Soon after, he was placed in the back of a van with two other immigrants, also in chains, and they drove away from the city. It wasn’t until the van stopped and Kwadwo was allowed out that he learned he was in Stockton. He was then put in a second vehicle with four more immigrants and they were driven to the Golden State Annex detention center, one of nine immigration detention centers in California.
He has been held there for over two months.
Life before detention
Kwadwo was born in Fiema, a small village in Ghana, best known for having a monkey sanctuary. Facing religious persecution as a Christian in a community that practices a traditional local religion, he left the country at 28 and ended up in South Africa, where he was granted asylum.
In South Africa, Kwadwo finished university and went on to run a guesthouse, which found success, particularly during the 2010 World Cup when he housed hundreds of fans from Ghana.
But Kwadwo said his financial success became the source of jealousy among the Ghanaian community in South Africa, and at one point his business was robbed by someone with insider knowledge. That, he said, is when he decided to leave for the United States.
He arrived here in 2018 with his wife and two sons, then 14 and 17, on a student visa. He studied respiratory care at Loma Linda University and went on to get a master’s degree in the field.
Soon, he had built a life in Daly City, working as a respiratory therapist for a company that brings in-home care to people on ventilators. Often, he worked long hours, driving all over the greater Bay Area to care for his patients.
“I am somebody who loves to work. If you leave me, I can work 24 hours a day,” he said.
By this year he was making over $166,000 a year, according to employment documents reviewed by Mission Local, enough to live comfortably and support one of his sons who is pursuing a master’s at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Life inside
Kwadwo’s section of the detention center holds 68 immigrants, and Kwadwo spends his time reading immigration court cases on his tablet or in the detention center’s library, learning about the system. He often finds court cases and sends them to his son to research. Sometimes he tries to help other immigrants understand how to fight their case, especially those who do not speak English.
Whenever he can, he calls his sons from inside a small booth in the detention center.
Kwadwo’s son said his fathers arrest has been a big “stressor,” in part because he relies on his father to support him financially while he studies and works in a research lab.
“It feels like they’re just trying to find people to fill up prisons. It feels like the system is failing us,” his son said.
When Kwadwo was arrested, he filed a habeas corpus petition on his own behalf from detention, demanding to be released while awaiting a court date. But the judge denied his bond, citing a “flight risk,” he said.
He is appealing that decision. If it does not work, it is not clear what will come next.
He has not ventured outside to get exercise, play football or even go for a walk in two months.
“I’ve made it a principle that I don’t want to see the sun,” said Kwadwo.
“When I see the sun,” he said, “it means I’m going out.”
