A United Airlines employee was filmed threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a U.S.-Mexican traveler in a video that has gone viral. The incident occurred on June 14 when Julio Varela, 54, was attempting to resolve an issue with his airline tickets.
In the footage, the unidentified employee can be heard saying, "Maybe we should call ICE on you." Varela, who was filming the interaction, responded with shock and challenged the employee to "Say that again." The employee continued, "You need to leave, because you don't act like a citizen." Varela then demanded, "Call ICE on me, lady! Call ICE on me," accusing the worker of being "racist."
Varela told The San Francisco Chronicle that the confrontation escalated after an hour of waiting, when he was informed that his family's tickets had been purged from the system. He stated that he took the threat of calling ICE very seriously, particularly coming from a person of color. "For somebody to threaten a Hispanic with ICE is a power trip," Varela said. "For a person of color to use that against me is jaw-dropping."
The ticketing issue began when Varela mistakenly entered his daughter's middle name as her last name on her ticket. Despite purchasing the ticket through United, a partner airline operated the flight. Both United and Air Canada were reportedly unable to correct the error, directing the family between different ticket counters upon their arrival at the airport. United eventually canceled the family's flights due to the unresolved name discrepancy.
"We spent no less than 15-20 hours on the phone trying to get the name changed," Varela recounted.
After another United employee intervened, the family was reissued flights to Montreal, where Varela's wife was scheduled to attend a pharmaceutical conference. United has stated that it is investigating the incident. It remains unclear whether the employee involved is still with the company.