Berkeley Student Held by ICE Since Airport Arrest Asks Court for Release
Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, a 23-year-old Colombian asylum seeker with no criminal record, was detained at San Francisco International on October 30.
A University of California, Berkeley student who is seeking asylum remains in federal immigration custody more than a week after agents detained her at San Francisco International Airport, and her lawyers have asked a federal court to order her release.
Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, 23, is a Colombian citizen studying business administration at Berkeley. ICE agents arrested her on October 30 as she was boarding a flight to Portland, Oregon, for a trip with her boyfriend. She has lived in the United States since 2022 and works as a marketing intern for an AI startup.
Her attorneys at Centro Legal De La Raza filed a habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court on Monday, asking for her immediate release. The petition says she fled Colombia over gender-based persecution and has an asylum case pending. It says she has no criminal record and that this was her first arrest. She is being held at the California City Detention Facility, according to KRON4.
The Department of Homeland Security describes her differently. A DHS spokesperson called her an "illegal alien" and said she entered the country on September 6, 2022, with permission to stay until March 6, 2023. DHS says she "did not depart" and will stay in ICE custody while removal proceedings continue. The agency also said undocumented immigrants may no longer fly domestically unless they are leaving the country.
Her attorneys say she has complied with every requirement of the asylum process. An asylum applicant with a pending claim is generally allowed to remain in the United States while the claim is decided, which is the core of the dispute that the habeas petition now puts before a judge.
The petition describes deep local ties. Her immediate family lives in the Bay Area. She graduated with honors from San Jose City College and is an active member of a church in Hayward.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Richard Lyons called her a "valued member of our community" and said the university is working to help her return to her studies. He pointed students to the campus's Undocumented Student Program. Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii said she was deeply concerned, argued the detention does not make the city safer, and called for her release. Ishii said arrests like this spread fear among immigrant families and students.
The case is drawing attention because it involves an enrolled student detained at an airport, a place many travelers assume is routine. It also lands days after Democrats won control of Congress, and several have promised closer scrutiny of ICE operations. A federal judge has not yet ruled on the habeas petition, and the court's timetable has not been made public.
