A business trip from Philly led to an ICE arrest at a California airport. Now a local man is in detention.

Michael “Sandy” Sims was supposed to be back in Philadelphia by now, after a business trip to the West Coast. Instead, he’s locked up in an ICE detention center in California.

Sims, 42, a veteran of the entertainment-lighting industry, told his wife that immigration agents were waiting for him when his Lyft driver pulled up at the San Jose airport early on Sept. 2.

Sims was born in Ireland and raised in London, and has been expecting approval of a green card that he and his wife, an American citizen, sought after they married in 2017.

Now he’s in custody as U.S. airports become risky places for foreigners, amid an ICE push for ever-greater numbers of arrests.

“It’s horrible,” said Sims’ wife, Jennifer, 46. “We thought we were waiting for a green card.”

For so long, she said, the United States has been a beacon for people around the world who want to come, work and contribute, to create better lives for their families. Now, she said, “the American dream is gone.”

Sims is being held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, a 400-bed facility operated by the for-profit, Florida-based Geo Group.

The advocacy organization Asian Americans United, which works to track airport arrests, said it estimates more than 20 people have been arrested at Philadelphia International Airport or while seeking to fly there since July 12. That includes at least 13 taken into custody at the Philadelphia airport itself.

The Department of Homeland Security said Sims entered the country legally but then overstayed his visa.

“Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” DHS said in a statement. “Under President Trump and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences.”

The department said Sims faces a criminal charge of domestic battery in Nevada, where he lived at one time. DHS provided no further details, and along with ICE, did not respond to requests for information on what allegedly happened and when.

In a search of Nevada court documents, The Inquirer could find no record of any criminal case against Sims. And Sims’ Philadelphia immigration lawyer, Hunter Yost, said he had no knowledge of and could locate no record of such a case.

Jennifer Sims said her husband has never been charged with a crime.

When she subsequently asked her husband about the government’s assertion that he had a pending criminal case, she said, he told her that when he was arrested and handcuffed by ICE, one of the agents kept saying, “You’re a wife-beater,” and the other repeatedly said, “No, he’s not.”

Sims’ family and friends have started a Go Fund Me to cover legal expenses to free him from ICE detention and pay related costs, so far raising more than $20,000 of the $30,000 goal.

Sandy Sims sent a note from detention that was posted there:

“Hello to everyone from Dorm B Mesa Verde Detention Center,” he wrote. “Thank you one and all for your support. … I’m so grateful. Thank you all and I hope this situation will be over soon.”

Sims’ wife said he legally entered the U.S. on a work visa in 2016. When that expired he was subsequently approved for entry under ESTA, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. That’s an online initiative the federal government uses to pre-screen travelers before they visit the United States under the Visa Waiver Program.

The waiver program allows citizens from 42 countries, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, to travel here for tourism or business for up to 90 days at a time.

Jennifer Sims said after they wed, she filed Form I-130, the document required to prove a valid family relationship with a foreigner who wants to immigrate to the United States. That application, she said, was approved in March 2020 ― a key step toward a green card. Her husband had completed his biometrics appointment, where the government collects the applicant’s fingerprints, photograph, and digital signature, three months earlier, she said.

He was given a U.S. Social Security number, she said.

The couple worries their green-card paperwork might have been lost when they relocated to Las Vegas and back to Philadelphia between 2018 and 2021.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s nationwide effort to increase arrests at U.S. airports has spurred warnings from immigration attorneys that even those with valid work permits and government-issued identification can be in danger.

An ICE summer push saw a record 49,571 people arrested across the nation in the month of July, many of them taken into custody at airports, courthouses, and scheduled immigration check-ins. That’s an average of 1,599 arrests a day, a 15% increase over the previous month, according to figures from the Deportation Data Project.

The July arrests included 1,174 in Pennsylvania and 2,112 in New Jersey.

Homeland Security said airport arrests are occurring because the Trump administration “reversed the horrendous Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country.”

“Under President Trump, DHS will no longer tolerate this,” the agency said last month, as news spread of Philadelphia airport arrests. “This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.”

The Trump administration says its immigration-enforcement effort targets criminals, that it has been arresting and deporting killers, rapists and child-abusers to make the country safer. However, the latest data showed that half of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or charges, and less than 25% had been convicted of a crime.

Sandy Sims has worked in entertainment lighting since 2002, including on shows for Metallica, Usher, and Florence + the Machine, the hugely popular English rock band, his wife said.

She said she feels like the immigration system has been turned into a money-maker, where people trying to follow the law are charged high fees, and private companies reap profits by keeping people in custody.

The Geo Group signed a contract with ICE in 2019 to run five locations including the Mesa Verde center, where Sims is being held, that’s expected to bring the company $200 million a year.

“I feel,” Jennifer Sims said, “like they just want people’s money.”

Inquirer staff writer Dylan Purcell contributed to this article.