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ICE agents arrested Ukrainian woman at San Francisco airport; video showed agents pinning her to floor as she alleged choking

Plainclothes ICE agents arrested Iryna Gorb, a 38-year-old Ukrainian national who had lived in San Francisco for 16 years, at San Francisco International Airport on July 22, 2026. Video captured by a Richmond city council member showed agents pinning Gorb to the floor in Terminal 3; she screamed that agents were choking her and called out to bystanders for help. DHS confirmed the arrest and said Gorb had overstayed a visa since 2011; she was transferred to California City Detention Facility in Kern County.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
San Francisco, California

Abuses documented

Actors

Plainclothes ICE agents arrested Iryna Gorb, a 38-year-old Ukrainian national, in Terminal 3 of San Francisco International Airport on the evening of July 22, 2026, as she returned from a trip to Portland. Gorb had lived in San Francisco for sixteen years; she worked as the head barista at Better Half Coffee in Nob Hill and as a photographer. DHS said she had lawfully entered the United States on a visa in July 2010, that her visa expired in May 2011, and that she had overstayed since. The agency said that when agents approached Gorb, "she attempted to flee and resisted arrest."

Video of the arrest, captured by Richmond City Councilmember Doria Robinson — who was traveling through the airport at the time — showed two plainclothes agents pinning Gorb to the floor. In the footage, Gorb can be heard shouting "You're choking me!" and "They're f—ing ICE, I'm from Ukraine, please, somebody." Agents did not identify themselves to bystanders who asked what Gorb was being arrested for. Gorb was handcuffed to an airport wheelchair and rolled away. She was transferred to California City Detention Facility in Kern County, where she called a friend from the Stockton ICE field office that night. Robinson said: "It wasn't right. It just felt in your heart and your soul that that was not right. That was not the way we should be doing things."

Why we recorded this

The First Amendment right to record public law enforcement activity and the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable seizures are at their most salient when federal agents in plainclothes conduct a public arrest with physical force in a major transit hub. Here, bystander video captured ICE agents pinning a woman to the floor at San Francisco International Airport while she alleged she was being choked; the agents did not identify themselves to witnesses. The video and the choking allegation constitute independent evidence of the conduct — the government's sole description cannot be verified against it — making this a documented instance of force in immigration enforcement with evidence the public can evaluate.

Sources

  1. 'It Wasn't Right': Woman Arrested by ICE at SFO Is a San Francisco Photographer, Barista — KQED investigative accessed July 26, 2026
  2. 38-year-old Ukrainian woman violently arrested at SFO — Mission Local investigative accessed July 26, 2026
  3. Woman arrested by ICE at SFO is SF photographer, cafe worker — SF Standard secondary accessed July 26, 2026
  4. ICE arrest of Ukrainian woman at SFO captured on video — NBC News secondary accessed July 26, 2026

See also