A Mexican American father was floored when a United Airlines customer service agent threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on him during a heated interaction at San Francisco International Airport.
“My reaction was shock, disbelief, anger, embarrassment,” Julio Varela, 54, said in an interview Monday. “It was so demeaning.”
The incident took place Tuesday after Varela said he had spent more than two hours working with United to try to resolve a ticketing issue. As tensions escalated between him and a customer service agent, he took out his phone and began recording.
“Maybe we should call ICE on you,” the female employee says in the video, followed by, “You don’t act like a citizen, get away.”
Varela was so outraged by the comment he decided to post the video on Reddit in an effort to seek accountability. It quickly attracted a massive amount of public and media attention, and a spokesperson for United confirmed Monday that the airline is investigating the incident.
“I definitely wanted others to see, and I also want other immigrants or minorities to know — whether they’re legal, illegal, whether they have their residency or their citizenship — that if this happens to you, stand up,” he said. “You have got to fight back.”
In the nearly 90-second recording, Varela calls the customer service representative lazy, rude and racist and asks her for her name tag. The heated encounter ends with the woman, who is also recording the confrontation, walking toward him and pushing his phone away.
Varela said he was shocked that someone in California would suggest calling ICE on a Latino person.
“San Francisco is one of the most liberal cities in the nation,” he said. “Maybe if I would have been in Arkansas, I would have said, ‘Well, yeah, not too surprising,’ but it is super surprising.”
Varela is an American citizen and currently lives in San Ramon with his wife and their three daughters. Last week, the family was traveling to Montreal but was initially unable to board their flight because one of his daughters had a problem with the spelling of her name on her ticket.
The ticket was purchased through United Airlines, but the flight was operated by Air Canada, and it proved very challenging to get a new ticket printed with the correct name spelling, he said.
Varela claims that the United customer service agent had a bad attitude from the beginning and informed him that she did not care whether his family was able to board their flight. This made him angry and he called her rude and lazy, he said.
The family was ultimately able to board after an Air Canada representative reissued a ticket; however, the entire airport experience left the family rattled.
“It is serious to threaten people with ICE after what has happened with ICE,” he said. “They don’t care if you’re a citizen, don’t care if you’re Hispanic, white, a mother, a veteran. They’ll shoot you, so it’s not a joke.”
A spokesperson for the union representing the employee said they were aware of the video but “have no verification of its authenticity or the full context.”
“As depicted, the comments made in the video do not reflect the views or values of the IAM Union,” the spokesperson said in a statement Monday. “Any potential matters arising from this incident will be handled through the appropriate processes established by the collective bargaining agreement.”
Varela said it was insulting that the union would question the authenticity of his video.
United Airlines has been in touch with him to hear his side of the story and inform him they are investigating the incident, he said.
Thus far, there has been no information shared on potential disciplinary actions against the employee.
Since the encounter went viral, Varela said he had been inundated with interview requests and was making an effort to continue sharing his story to send a message that racism of any kind should not be tolerated.
“I’m always telling my girls that we need to stand up for what we believe in,” he said. “Now, I’ve got to show them what I’ve been preaching to them since they were born.”
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