Fact Check: Did Trump’s TSA, ICE move lead to San Francisco airport arrest?

WASHINGTON, DC: On Sunday, March 22, a video went viral across social media, appearing to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting a woman at San Francisco International Airport while her daughter cried nearby.

Critics claimed that President Donald Trump's decision to deploy federal agents to airports to help ease the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) led to the arrest. But is there any truth to this? Let us find out below.

Claim: Trump’s TSA, ICE move led to San Francisco airport arrest

As the clip went viral across social media platforms, critics reacted to it and said that the incident was a result of federal immigration agents being sent to security checkpoints.

Rep Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, wrote on X on Monday, March 23, "ICE is not at airports to help TSA and reduce lines. They are there (without identification), trying to arrest people, exactly as I predicted. ICE must be abolished."

An X user shared the clip and wrote, "ICE agents at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) manhandling a woman are getting called what they are: 'A******s'."

Similarly, another account posted, "Trump’s ICE thugs violently arrest an AMERICAN CITIZEN at San Francisco Airport when they decided her ID wasn’t good enough. This is a practice run for when they do exactly this on Election Day in November to intimidate women and minorities from voting."

"BREAKING: ICE IS CAUSING CHAOS AT SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT," wrote another X user.

Fact Check: False, incident took place before ICE's deployment at SF airport

The claims made in the viral social media posts are false, as the arrest at the San Francisco airport took place before President Donald Trump deployed the ICE agents there.

The POTUS announced on Saturday, March 21, that this was needed because Democrats in Congress had failed to approve a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, the deployment of ICE agents did not officially begin until Monday morning, and San Francisco was not one of the airports reported to have required their assistance. 

A spokesperson from SFO informed Newsweek that federal agents were transporting "two individuals on an outbound flight" when the Sunday night incident happened.

"We believe this is an isolated incident and have no reason to suspect broader enforcement action at SF," the spokesperson said.

They added, "The airport’s role is to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the facility for all passengers and staff. We were not involved in or notified in advance of this incident. Airport operations continued without disruption, and there was no impact to flights or passenger processing."