2 Palestinians detained at San Francisco International Airport, protest follows

When their plane arrived at SFO, the two men — who had obtained visas, Litwin said — didn’t come out of the airport.

“They got visas to come, and we were here waiting for them, some of us yesterday at the airport, and the plane landed, and they never emerged,” she said. “We found out that their visas had been revoked and that they were wanting to send them back, for no reason that they would explain to us.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to request for comment, although the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the two men had been booked on a Thursday afternoon flight back to Doha, Qatar.

The detainment and reality that the two men will likely not be allowed into the country sparked protests at the airport throughout the day Thursday. It’s deeply upsetting, said Zahra Billoo, San Francisco Bay Area executive director for the Council on Islamic-American Relations.

“What is likely in this scenario is that they will be sent back the same exact way they came. Unfortunately, CBP has made the final decision that they will not be permitted to enter, and we’re very disappointed,” she said. “These are two Palestinian human rights activists, and were coming on a cultural and religious exchange to get to know and learn from and be with people of other faiths.”

Billoo connected the detainment of the two men with Trump administration crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests and revocation of visas for pro-Palestinian activists, as well as recent escalation of deportation actions in Los Angeles and across the country.

“This is the intersection of everything we’re seeing in Southern California with [Immigrations and Customs Enforcement] and really across California … as well as the way in which the Trump administration has targeted Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists. And it’s the same week that the Muslim ban goes into effect,” she said.

This week, the Trump administration implemented a travel ban on individuals from 12 countries and heightened restrictions on seven countries, mostly in North Africa and the Middle East. It mirrors travel ban action taken during his first administration, which was quickly dubbed a Muslim ban due to its targeting of majority-Muslim countries.

Hazzan Shulamit Wise Fairman, a member of the clergy at Kehilla Community Synagogue, said the detainment reflected what many legal scholars and elected officials are calling a rise of authoritarianism from the federal government.

“I’m not a student of the Constitution, but it seems unconstitutional. It’s definitely immoral and unethical, and is a spiritual affront to their humanity, their intrinsic value as Palestinian human beings, as beloved friends,” she said. “It’s in line with the federal government’s increasingly fascist, amoral policies.”

Wise Fairman rejected the idea that the actions taken by the federal administration were combating antisemitism or keeping Jewish communities safe.

“We abhor antisemitism being weaponized and used as an excuse for silencing people, for stripping away their civil and human rights,” she said. “Even in the face of antisemitism being on the rise in some ways, it’s being weaponized in destructive and abusive ways that doesn’t make any Jews any safer.”

The Bay Area congressional delegation — including San Mateo County lawmakers U.S. Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, and U.S. Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-San Jose — put out a statement June 12 condemning the detainment and asking for answers from CBP.

“We call upon Customs and Border Protection to immediately respond to congressional inquiries and provide the justification behind these individuals’ continued detainment and threatened deportation scheduled for later this afternoon,” the statement from Thursday read. “By inexplicably revoking visas, Trump’s CBP is discrediting America’s reputation abroad and breeding further distrust of our immigration system.”