Tucked within SFO’s International Terminal is a windowless room officials call an “in-transit lounge.” Immigration lawyers and the people who’ve been detained inside call it a jail. More than two dozen immigrants, mostly green-card holders with past arrests, have been held at San Francisco International Airport this year without access to dedicated medical care, attorneys or even beds for more than three days, a violation of Customs and Border Protection’s guidelines, a Chronicle investigation found. Some of the immigrants were taken to SFO after landing at other California airports, including Fresno Yosemite International Airport more than 180 miles away. A 67-year-old diabetic, who landed in Fresno on a flight from Guadalajara, Mexico, said he was driven to SFO and detained for eight days earlier this year without a way to check his blood sugar. He called the airport detention “psychological torture.” Article continues below this adHe asked that his name not be published out of fear it could affect his legal status. Immigration agents boarded the Volaris flight calling his name, he told the Chronicle through a Spanish interpreter. Soon, he was loaded into a van with one other person. Both sat with cuffed ankles and hands.“I feel like I was kidnapped,” he said. The man, who has been legally in the country for 50 years, said he slept sitting upright in a chair each night. The overhead lights were always on. His body ached. He was offered no change of clothes, so he wore the same pair of jeans and underwear his entire stay. A 67-year-old Fresno County man, a lawful permanent resident, told the Chronicle he felt he was “kidnapped” after being detained by immigration agents, driven to SFO and held there for more than a week.Santiago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleHe was eventually transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center, like 18 of the 25 other people held at SFO for more than 72 hours through July of this year.Article continues below this adCustoms and Border Protection policy caps such detentions at 72 hours, but federal data shows the agency has detained more than 400 people at international airports across the country for longer than that since January, including 146 who had valid green cards.After Miami, SFO had the second-highest number of detentions that lasted longer than 72 hours and resulted in an ICE transfer. The San Francisco airport also had the largest share of green-card holders among detainees, with 19 among its 25 cases.Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a detailed list of questions. But spokesperson Jaime Ruiz said in a statement that the agency “provides guidance to ports of entry to ensure that all applicants for admission are treated fairly and with dignity, and that inspections and examinations are conducted in accordance with current laws, regulations, and court decisions.”Ruiz also said those entering the United States bear “the burden of proving admissibility.”“Under U.S. immigration law, all aliens seeking entry to the United States as temporary visitors are presumed to be intending immigrants unless they establish, to the satisfaction of the examining officer, that they are eligible for admission,” Ruiz said. “To be admitted, a traveler must demonstrate that they have overcome all applicable grounds of inadmissibility listed in section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.” Article continues below this adThat section of immigration law allows officers to deny admission to the country based on “crimes involving moral turpitude.”While videos of violent arrests by plainclothes ICE agents at domestic terminals have gone viral, the interactions that lead to lengthy airport detentions typically begin at the customs counter as passengers wait in line. Those flagged for a past arrest — including cases that involved nonviolent offenses or have been expunged from state records — are taken to an interview room, a dozen immigration attorneys told the Chronicle.They are denied access to their phones, separated from their luggage and eventually held in a “lounge.” Before President Donald Trump’s deportation crackdown, green-card holders flagged during customs screenings were routinely released from the airport with a follow-up appointment, the attorneys said. Now, lawful permanent residents and other visa holders can spend days with limited access to family in a guarded room with bench-style couches, chairs and a television. ICE arrests have been on the rise, with the administration setting records in July with 4,300 arrests in California and about 50,000 nationwide. Article continues below this adTold of the Chronicle’s findings about SFO detentions in excess of 72 hours, Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, whose district includes the airport, demanded a tour of the lounge at Customs and Border Protection’s SFO office on Aug. 20. Under federal law, any member of Congress can visit a detention facility without notice. Agents turned him away, he said. Six days later, he tried again and was allowed inside. He said he observed five people in the holding room. Usually, Customs and Border Protection agents tell detainees that officers are waiting on certified court records related to an old conviction before they can make a decision about their admission to the country, attorneys said.Federal officials initially denied Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, access to the SFO detention facilities. On Wednesday, Aug. 26, he tried again and was allowed inside. He observed five people in the holding room.Provided by Kevin Mullin“They were not hiding from the fact this is a definitive policy shift from the Trump administration,” Mullin told the Chronicle of the federal officers stationed at SFO, hours after his visit last Wednesday. “They would not suggest there was a quota being handed out, but there is clearly direction being given from up top.” Article continues below this ad“This is no way to treat human beings,” he said. San Francisco International Airport is owned by the city and county. The airport itself does not have any authority over how CBP uses its facilities. SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel said that the Department of Homeland Security has extensive regulatory authority over U.S. airports and that Customs and Border Protection facilities operate outside of an airport’s jurisdiction.“SFO is not involved in any decisions about approving or denying entry into the United States,” Yakel said. ‘Not free to leave’ The federal government’s power is at its peak when people are trying to enter, or reenter, the country. Customs officers’ broad authority at a port of entry, combined with a Trump executive order to detain all “inadmissible and removable aliens,” has created a mechanism to strip green-card holders of their status behind closed doors.That’s especially true in San Francisco, which had the highest share of green-card holders in any region, with at least 10 cases of 72 hour-plus holds. Customs and Border Protection’s “National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search” manual says that “detainees should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours” and that “every effort must be made to hold them for the least amount of time required.” The standards were published in 2015 and are still posted to the agency’s website. The Chronicle spoke to four local attorneys representing six green-card holders detained at SFO for six or more days since summer 2025.Three of the detainees told their attorneys that customs agents never specified why they were being held at SFO. Others understood that agents were waiting to obtain court documents after prior convictions flagged them in the system upon their arrival. The most recent case the Chronicle reviewed was a woman held from July 31 through Aug. 5.About 6,100 international travelers passing through Northern California airports were determined “inadmissible” and turned away by customs agents from January through July. The vast majority of those people wait with customs officers until they can get on a return flight. In nearly 80% of cases this year, that took less than eight hours, CBP data shows.Passengers exit near the U.S. Customs and Border Protection area in Terminal G at San Francisco International Airport on Friday.Yalonda M. James/S.F. ChronicleThat’s what the “lounge” is designed to accommodate. But under Trump, its use has changed.Marissa Hatton, a civil rights attorney who represents three green-card holders who were transported to SFO by immigration officers after landing in Fresno, described the space as an inhumane makeshift jail.“People are not free to leave, which is a key marker of something being used as a detention facility,” she said. People held at SFO told their attorneys they didn’t leave the “lounge” except to go to another holding area with an officer escort. Agents gave them food from the airport’s concession stands, such as sandwiches, salads or hamburgers.While the median age of detained green-card holders held for more than three days was 44 across the country, the median age of those detained in San Francisco was 57. Some of the Bay Area detainees were in their 60s and were never screened by a medical professional upon arrival, their attorneys said. Customs and Border Protection’s national standards say that “officers/agents must ask detainees about, and visually inspect for any sign of injury, illness, or physical or mental health concerns” and ask questions about medications. One man’s wife brought agents two sets of clothes over six days for her husband to change into. Two described sleeping in a chair for days with the lights always on, and said they left suffering from sleep deprivation. The niece of one woman held at SFO said her aunt spent most of her stay crying on a couch.Two were allowed daily calls to family. The calls were timed, supervised and lasted five minutes. Others were offered no contact with family at all.The black box Many attorneys are only just learning about prolonged airport detentions, as the government’s immigration strategies change in an effort to hit the Trump administration’s goal of deporting 1 million people each year. “We are in a black box when it comes to understanding the guidance that is out there,” said Jennifer Whitlock, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center. Whitlock fears that between airports and land ports of entry, detainees are regularly being coerced by agents to give up their green cards or other visas to make all the trouble “go away.” The 67-year-old man who spoke to the Chronicle said his van ride to SFO took about five hours. He landed in Fresno on March 10 around 11 p.m. and arrived in San Francisco early the next morning. “I just kept thinking, ‘Why did they arrest me? Why?” he recalled. “And I was worried about my medicine.” He has deteriorating vision and described himself as mostly blind, and also had high blood pressure, for which he takes four prescribed pills daily. At the time agents took him into custody, he didn’t have any insulin on him. A 67-year-old man and lawful permanent resident who was held at SFO for eight days sorts through his medications. The man, who is diabetic, said his blood sugar level was only tested once during his detention.Santiago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleA Fresno County man who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation holds his Real ID, Social Security and permanent-resident cards.Photos by Santago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleA Fresno County man who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation holds his Real ID, Social Security and permanent-resident cards.Photos by Santago Mejia/S.F. ChronicleOnce he arrived at SFO, he said, agents allowed him to contact his son, who drove from Fresno to provide insulin and a glucose monitor. But the glucose monitor did not work because it didn’t have all the required parts. On the second day, the man said a medical professional tested his blood sugar. It came back at 280 — well above a safe range. Blood sugar levels that high cause increased thirst, fatigue, blurred vision and headaches.Airport paramedics arrived to treat him. He soon got access to the insulin his son delivered, along with his other medications. Normally, he’d check his blood sugar daily, if not multiple times a day. No one checked it for the rest of the time he was at the airport, he said. Mullin said he questioned agents about medical access during his visit and was told officers will only give detainees medications if their names are printed on the bottle. He said he was told there are on-call paramedics and medical staff at the airport, and that in case of a life-threatening emergency, agents would take a detainee to a nearby hospital. The 67-year-old struggled to sleep for more than an hour at a time. People were constantly coming and going, he said. At times, up to four other detainees were in the lounge. He was given a thin blanket that he said was not sufficient to keep him warm.Agents, he said, shuffled him between different rooms each day: the main “lounge” space from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m., a second room from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. and a third from 1 a.m. until about 4 a.m. Agents did not explain the moves. All the rooms were similar and all had the same uncomfortable chairs, he said. Every three days, he was offered an escort to a shower inside a business called “Freshen Up” in the International Terminal that offers pay-as-you-go bathing and toiletries. It was the only time he left the Customs and Border Protection office. Agents covered the cost of the showers, listed at $30 on the business’ website. Afterward, he changed back into dirty clothes. The man was held at a lounge that has since been replaced. The new lounge is about 3,000 square feet, said Yakel, the SFO spokesperson. That’s the space Mullin saw during his recent visit. It was only recently handed over to Customs and Border Protection as part of sweeping renovations to the Dianne Feinstein International Terminal that included the 34,000-square-foot space between terminals A and G. Records filed with the city’s environmental department as part of the space’s “green” certification show June 1 as the planned activation date. The same document put estimated project costs at about $120 million. The new lounge has its own shower and laundry, Yakel said. He also said the airport has no authority over the site beyond making physical improvements.During Mullin’s visit, the representative saw a stack of pillows and blankets in a corner. He said there was no privacy, but there were now couches in addition to chairs. He saw someone asleep, lying down. “There’s no way I’d want to stay in that congregate setting for a night, let alone a whole week,” he said. Fishing expeditions Michael Mehr has been an immigration attorney since 1979. He said that as long as he can remember, green-card holders flagged for issues at customs would have been released from the airport with an appointment to return to meet with officers for “deferred in