A video posted on social media shows one of the agents showing a badge to a Salt Lake City Police officer who observed the scene without interfering at about 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Not many details of the arrest were clear in the following hours, until Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall released a statement Thursday condemning it.

“I am left wondering and aching from the fear and pain these types of operations keep striking in my heart and the hearts of so many of us,” Mendenhall said.

After watching footage from witnesses, the Salt Lake City Police officer’s body camera and airport surveillance — in which the woman is seen trying to break away from the officers, yelling “I have my papers” — Mendenhall said she had been made aware of the case, involving “multiple plain-clothed ICE agents.”

ICE initially denied being involved in the arrest on Thursday morning, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. But, after the Salt Lake City Police and the airport confirmed the arresting officers were from ICE, the agency released another statement acknowledging their involvement.

Officials with ICE confirmed the woman is a 39 year-old immigrant without permanent legal status in the country from El Salvador who had entered the U.S. in 2007 and had received a removal order in absentia in February 2020.

In a statement, ICE confirmed that the arrest was a targeted enforcement operation and that the woman will be held in their custody pending her removal to El Salvador.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is executing its mission of identifying and removing criminal aliens and others who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” the agency wrote. “All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality.”

A Utah court records search Friday showed only a winter parking infraction in 2022 under the woman’s name.

Mendenhall lamented the incident, saying that so much about ICE operations like the arrest in Salt Lake City remain unknown.

“In this case, for example, why were the agents in plain clothes without visible identification? Why did they choose the lobby of the airport–the gateway to our state–where some 28,000 people enter every day?,” Mendenhall said. “What I do know is that nothing about this incident, like so many ICE operations, makes me feel safer as an American.”

The city reached out to federal agencies searching for answers, “in the interest of promoting transparency, accountability and the well-being of all who live in and visit our city,” the Salt Lake City Council said in a statement.

“Incidents like this create fear and uncertainty in our community. The operation was not coordinated with or directed by Salt Lake City Police,” council members said.

City clarifications

While Mendenhall said there are details the city still doesn’t know about the detainment, she said some factors needed to be clarified.

Despite being inside the airport, the pre-security area where the arrest took place is considered a public space.

Also, the Salt Lake City Police officer who observed the arrest was responding to the commotion in the terminal and visually confirmed the agents’ federal identification, Mendenhall said.

Local law enforcement is prohibited from interfering with federal immigration enforcement.

In other daily operations from the city police, immigration status doesn’t influence how officers handle the situation, the mayor said, “nor do officers screen for immigration status when placing a person under arrest.”