United Airlines Sued for Alleged Collusion Leading to ICE Detention of Passenger at Phoenix Airport
What should have been the end of a happy weekend celebrating a friend’s wedding in Arizona turned into a living nightmare when Patience Gore, a Zimbabwian national, was detained by three undercover ICE agents at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (PHX) and subjected to two weeks of ‘degrading confinement’ in immigration custody before a court ordered her release. Gore is now accusing United Airlines of colluding with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after one of the carrier’s gate agents in Phoenix repeatedly made announcements for Patience to go to the gate where the ICE agents were lying in wait. United Airlines is said to have colluded with ICE in detaining Patience Gore at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The incident occurred late on Sunday, March 15, when Patience and her partner arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbor to fly home to Maryland after a busy weekend celebrating a friend’s wedding. They were booked on United flight UA-483 to Washington Dulles, and had checked in, dropped off their luggage, and obtained their boarding passes without any issues. The couple then went through TSA security and waited in the departures concourse for their delayed flight to be ready to board. During this time, Patience heard a voice over the airport’s intercom system repeatedly imploring: “Passenger Patience Gore, please come to the gate.” Patience couldn’t work out why she would be needed at the gate, as she and her partner had checked in with plenty of time to spare, and they both had their boarding passes. During bag drop, no issues had been raised by the United agents, but Patience dutifully made her way to Gate E7. On her arrival, the United gate agent repeatedly referred to Patience’s boarding pass. At this point, three male undercover ICE agents who weren’t wearing any visible identification or badges suddenly surrounded Patience and made it clear that she wasn’t free to go. Patience was eventually led out of the airport and transported to a detention facility in Florence, Arizona, where she was held for three days before being transferred to the Eloy Detention Center. There, she was forced to sleep on a mattress placed directly on the floor, subjected to repeated lockdowns, and denied a change of clothes or basic personal necessities, a lawsuit filed against United alleges. She was detained for two weeks before a court ordered her release after concluding that she had been previously granted a withholding of removal and that her removal to Zimbabwe is unlikely to occur in the near future. The detention did, however, mean that Patience missed a round of IVF treatment that she was scheduled to undergo at home. A replacement cycle did not result in pregnancy. In a new lawsuit filed in an Arizona district court, Patience makes it clear that United is banned from communicating with law enforcement, including ICE, and, where necessary, sharing data about its passengers. The lawsuit does, however, claim United “retained control over how it exercised its own passenger announcement authority and used that authority in a manner that created the appearance of legitimate airline business when no airline-related issue was identified.” Patience alleges that the presence of the ICE agents at the gate, along with the repeated announcements and the fact that the gate agents quickly lost interest in Patience once they had identified her from her boarding pass, shows that she was being called to the gate solely for the purpose of her detention. United is being sued for negligence because of the misleading use of passenger announcements and false imprisonment. Patience is requesting damages and punitive damages, with the total claim to be more than $75,000. United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.