United Airlines Agent At SFO Threatens To Call ICE On Customer—“You Don’t Act Like A Citizen”—Then Records Him

A United Airlines customer service agent in San Francisco is shown on video threatening to call ICE, because the passenger she’s talking to did not “act like a citizen.” She had her own phone out recording the customer, as he recorded her. In the 83-second video, the argument is already underway. The repeatedly dares her to call ICE, while another employee asks whether he wants the police involved. But he wants ICE called, “like you said.” He grows loud, calls the agent lazy, rude and racist, predicts that she will be fired and says that he will sue. Toward the end, the woman leaves the counter area and approaches him while still holding her own phone. She reaches toward his camera and the image jolts. United Airlines threatens to call ICE on customer then walks up to him and pushes phone away by u/666TripleSick in unitedairlines The passenger says this happened on Wednesday after the employee was “rude and dismissive,” that the customer had asked for her name so that he could report her, and that the customer is a U.S. citizen. The employee’s badge identifies her as an IAM union steward. The customer becomes annoyingly repetitive. He may have been difficult before the recording began. If he was threatening people, law enforcement is the appropriate next step (not federal immigration authorities). ICE is not the escalation team for customers an airline employee doesn’t like dealing with. In any case, citizenship is irrelevant. Non-citizens travel all the time. There are foreign citizens working in the U.S. on visas. There are tourists. Some are permanent residents, others are temporary. There’s no citizenship requirement for air travel. California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act guarantees equal service by businesses regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Federal law prohibits airlines from discriminating in air transportation based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex or ancestry. The state cause of action is unlikely to be preempted by the Airline Deregulation Act as regulation of routes, prices or service. That said, this is terrible customer service no matter who started it but likely not a successful lawsuit based on what’s in the video since it doesn’t show the customer being denied travel. San Francisco airport has already seen ICE confrontations with passengers. In March, plainclothes ICE agents detained a woman near gate E2 in Terminal 3 while a young girl cried nearby. Several commenters claim that they recognize the employee from their own unpleasant encounters with United at the airport. One says the woman previously refused to check him in through the 1K line because she assumed he didn’t have elite status. Another says she had reported the same woman before. Every airline has these employees of course, in my experience American’s was Matt in San Diego. Topics on this page