Mayor Daniel Lurie has appointed Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung to the Airport Commission, and most of the news media have played the story as a normal item: Mayor makes appointment.
The SF Standard focused on Tung’s possible political career:
The post could boost any political ambitions Tung might have beyond the DCCC. She unsuccessfully ran for district attorney in 2019 against Chesa Boudin, who was then recalled as DA in 2022 over voters’ concerns about crime. Tung was later on Breed’s appointment shortlist to replace Boudin.
None of the stories focused on the role that Tung could play on a commission that oversees a city agency that is, and will be, directly in the path of Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants.
ICE is already stopping people at the airport, including people who have a legal right to live in the United States:
Eric Lee wrote in a post on X that his client, 40-year-old Tae Heung “Will” Kim, was taken into custody at the airport last week when he returned from his brother’s wedding in South Korea.
According to the post, Kim spent more than seven days at an SFO detention center without daylight, sleeping in a chair and having no access to an attorney.
Yes: At the San Francisco Airport. This is going to get worse.
Missing from the discussion: Tung was among a tiny number of Democrats who tried to block a resolution calling on the state not to share license-plate date with ICE. She was, in essence, calling for the state to cooperate with the Trump Administration.
David Campos, former supervisor, immigrant, and vice chair of the party, put it this way on Facebook:
Sad to see Mayor Lurie tap for the SF Airport Commission someone who has pushed for more cooperation with the Trump Administration. The SF airport is the point of entry, the gateway to and from San Francisco and the world. If there is any place where further cooperation with the Trump Administration is dangerous and harmful is at the airport. What is Mayor Lurie thinking here?
So disappointing and scary for so many immigrants, not just undocumented ones that this individual would be in such a role. Anyone who is or looks Latino is a target. How safe are we as immigrants, as Latinos at SFO with such a person on the SF Airport Commission? We may have to thinking about flying out of or into a different airport.
Tung is part of the effort to move the Democratic Party to the right, and to support the agenda of the billionaires. That doesn’t seem to be working, on a national or local level.
Now, she’s in a position to set policy on an agency that will be on the front lines of the Trump agenda.
That doesn’t seem to be news in San Francisco.
