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SAN FRANCISCO — A 23-year-old UC Berkeley student from Colombia remains in federal immigration custody more than a week after agents detained her at San Francisco International Airport as she waited to board a flight for a weekend trip with her boyfriend.
Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday, Oct. 30, at a departure gate before a flight to Portland, Oregon. She is being held at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County while her lawyers challenge the arrest in federal court.
The Department of Homeland Security says she overstayed a visa that expired in 2023. Her attorney says she has a pending asylum claim, a valid work permit and no criminal record, and calls the arrest unlawful.
Arrest at the gate
Her boyfriend, identified in reports only as Anthony, said the couple had arrived early for a hiking getaway he hoped would give her a break from a heavy course load. While they sat in the gate area, he told Berkeleyside, a plainclothes officer approached and said she looked familiar.
According to her attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, the officer struck up a conversation without identifying himself and first asked whether she went by a different name. When she confirmed her name was Paula, he showed an ICE badge and detained her. Agents then separated the couple and told her she was being held because her visa had expired, Anthony said.
“I felt useless,” Anthony told KTVU, adding that she held his face and told him it was not his fault.
After the arrest, ICE moved her through facilities in Stockton and Sacramento before transferring her to California City, a remote detention center in the Mojave Desert.
The government’s position
DHS confirmed the arrest and described Albornoz Hernandez as being in the country illegally. According to ICE records cited by the agency, she entered the U.S. in September 2022 and was authorized to stay until March 2023.
A DHS spokesperson said she did not leave when her authorization ran out, and that she will receive due process while held in custody pending removal proceedings. ICE officials also disputed the claim that the arresting officer failed to identify himself.
Asked why the agency would detain someone with a pending asylum application and a work permit, the spokesperson told the Associated Press that neither one grants legal status in the United States.
The legal fight
Albornoz Hernandez applied for asylum on the basis of gender-based violence she experienced in Colombia, her lawyers say. De Bremaeker said she filed before her deadline, cleared her biometrics appointment and then received a work permit.
Attorneys with Centro Legal de la Raza filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court on Nov. 2, arguing the arrest violated federal law and the Constitution. The petition asks a judge to release her and bar ICE from re-detaining her unless the government proves at a hearing that she is a flight risk or a danger. The team has also sought a temporary restraining order. As of the latest reports, the court had not ruled.
She has a separate hearing in immigration court on Nov. 17. Her lawyers are also asking members of Congress to open an inquiry and to introduce a private bill that would grant her permanent status.
Campus and city respond
UC Berkeley Chancellor Richard Lyons sent a campus-wide message on Nov. 2 calling the student a valued member of the community. He did not name her, citing privacy law, but said the university had arranged legal support and was in contact with her family. Lyons also wrote a letter to immigration officials, attached to the habeas petition, describing her as one of Berkeley’s outstanding students.
The Associated Students of the University of California said that, to its knowledge, this is the first ICE detention of an enrolled Berkeley student since the administration’s mass-deportation push began. Friends and classmates rallied on campus on Nov. 4 to demand her release.
Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii called on ICE to free her so she can resume classes while her case proceeds, saying such arrests spread fear among immigrant families. SFO said it does not assist in immigration enforcement and was not told about the operation.
Who she is
Albornoz Hernandez, who is from Bogotá, is a junior in the undergraduate business administration program at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. She transferred from San Jose City College, where her attorney says she graduated with honors. KRON4 reported she also interns at an artificial intelligence company.
Her case comes as ICE has stepped up arrests at SFO and other airports since the summer, particularly of people who once overstayed visas. Her boyfriend described her as studious and said attending Berkeley had long been her goal.
Sources
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