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VIDEO: Two Bay Area women detained by ICE at airports
Two Bay Area women are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after being detained at separate airports this week in incidents that were captured on camera.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Two Bay Area women are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after being detained at separate airports this week in incidents that were captured on camera.
Friends and advocates are now working to secure the release of 38-year-old Iryna Gorb of San Francisco and 27-year-old Chantal Morales Rojas of Oakland following their arrests at San Francisco International Airport and Denver International Airport.
Ukrainian artist detained at SFO
Gorb was taken into custody Wednesday at SFO by plainclothes ICE officers. Richmond Councilmember Doria Robinson, who was about to board a flight, recorded the incident after hearing shouting.
"I heard a woman screaming, 'Help me, help me,'" Robinson said. "You don’t even know if they’re actually ICE or if they are some sort of entity. You have no idea what’s going to happen to that woman, and then you’re complicit with it. I mean that was the disempowering thing for all the hundreds of people that stood there and were forced to watch that happen."
Gorb, an artist and independent coffee shop employee originally from Ukraine, is currently being held at ICE's California City Detention Center in Southern California.
According to friends, she had been living in the U.S. on a student visa, which ICE said expired in 2011.
Friends described her as fiercely loyal and expressed deep concern for her well-being.
"She spent a lot of the last few years worrying about her parents coming and going in and out of an active war zone and she hasn’t been able to go see them," said Andy Eblin, a friend of Gorb. "I’ve seen her shaken before, but it takes the first land war in Europe in 60 years to do it usually."
A GoFundMe campaign has been established to assist with the legal expenses of Iryna Gorb.
Au Pair detained in Denver
In a separate incident on Monday, Morales Rojas was detained by ICE officers at Denver International Airport while traveling with her friend, Alecia Dantzker, who recorded the encounter. Morales Rojas remains held at a detention center in Aurora, Colorado.
"Two large men kind of like hustled us into the jetway and someone closed the door behind us," Dantzker said. "She’s always been one of the calmest and strongest people I have ever met. I know that she’s scared."
Originally from Ecuador, Morales Rojas spent the past two years working as an au pair on a J1 visa that recently expired. She had filed for an extension to prolong her stay in the U.S.
A fundraiser to help pay for her legal expenses has currently raised more than $100 thousand.
Attorney Warns Against Air Travel
Immigration attorney Nicolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza warned that air travel presents significant risks for individuals with unresolved immigration status.
"ICE is getting information about folks, flight information, and they have installed a dragnet to be able to find information about where folks are flying to and flying from," De Bremaeker said. "So we definitely recommend to not fly unless you speak with an attorney first."
De Bremaeker, who is not representing either women, advised anyone who witnesses an ICE detainment to contact their local rapid response hotline.
Attorneys representing both women are working to secure their release.