TSA officials tip off ICE before arrest of Guatemalan mother at SFO: NYT

TSA tipped off ICE officials about deportation order at SFO

New York Times reporter Hamed Aleaziz explains how TSA officials tipped off ICE about a Guatemalan mother and daughter with final deportation orders at San Francisco International Airport. 

SAN FRANCISCO - New details are emerging about the arrest of a Guatemalan national and her daughter at San Francisco International Airport last Sunday – an event that was documented on video and has been widely shared on social media.

Transportation Security Administration officials alerted Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers days before the flight of Angelina Lopez-Jimenez and her 9-year-old daughter after the agency identified her as being under a deportation order, according to a report by The New York Times.

SFO contracts with a third party to serve as TSA agents. 

Mother and daughter were headed to Miami, according to the report. 

(L-R) SFPD officers are present as ICE officers arrest a woman at SFO. Screenshot showing a woman getting arrested at SFO by ICE. March 22, 2026 Photo credit: TikTok users @edelizon1 and @argw6

A judge ordered her deportation in 2019 following a court hearing she missed, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times. 

It remains unclear whether Lopez-Jimenez, who lived in Contra Costa County, was aware of the order at the time of her arrest.

The New York Times obtained government documents about the arrest, which illustrate how the TSA is sharing traveler information with ICE, making it easier for the Trump administration to detain and deport undocumented immigrants as they pass through airports.

Mother and daughter were on a flight Tuesday morning bound for Guatemala, according to the New York Times.