ICE arrests 23-year-old UC Berkeley student and asylum seeker at San Francisco airport

A UC Berkeley student was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at San Francisco International Airport Friday while waiting to board a flight to Portland for a vacation with her boyfriend.

Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, 23, is currently being held at ICE’s California City Detention Center, agency records show, while UC Berkeley students and administration mobilize to support her. Attorneys at Centro Legal de la Raza have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her detention.

The arrest likely represents the first ICE detention of an active UC Berkeley student since the Trump administration began its mass deportation push last year, said both Niko De Bremaeker, a managing attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza, and university spokesperson Aileen Zerrudo.

The business administration student arrived in the U.S. from Colombia in 2022, De Bremaeker said. He said she overstayed her visa and applied for asylum based on experiencing “severe gender-based violence” in her home country, an application that is still pending. She had a valid work permit, De Bremaeker said, and had attended San Jose City College before transferring to Berkeley where she was conducting research on artificial intelligence.

On Friday night, her boyfriend Anthony said, the couple had arrived early at the airport for a weekend getaway that he hoped would help take Albornoz Hernandez’s mind off her heavy course load. They were waiting in the gate area, he said, when an ICE agent in plain clothes approached Albornoz Hernandez and asked her name, saying she looked familiar. Without identifying himself as working for ICE, the agent guessed a couple of different names, Anthony said, to which Albornoz Hernandez said no.

The third time, Anthony said, he guessed right. Once Albornoz Hernandez confirmed her name, ICE agents separated the couple, then told Albornoz Hernandez that her visa was expired and they were going to detain her, Anthony said. (Berkeleyside agreed to identify him by his first name only due to the sensitivity of his girlfriend’s case.)

“It was scary seeing that my partner was getting ripped apart from me and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Anthony said.

Albornoz Hernandez spent most of the weekend at Stockton Detention Center, De Bremaeker said, before being taken to California City, a facility northeast of Los Angeles where earlier this year, a court-ordered investigation found major flaws in the medical care provided to people detained there .

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed by email that ICE agents had detained Albornoz Hernandez at SFO.

“She entered the country on September 6, 2022, with legal permission to stay until March 6, 2023. In defiance of our nation’s laws, she did not depart,” wrote the spokesperson, who did not give their name. “She will receive due process and remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”

The DHS spokesperson denied that ICE agents had failed to identify themselves when approaching Albornoz Hernandez, saying agents “clearly identify themselves as law enforcement in accordance with agency policy.”

Asked why agents had detained someone with a pending asylum application and valid work permit, the spokesperson replied that “work authorization or a pending application does NOT confer legal status in the United States.”

ICE has stepped up arrests at San Francisco International Airport and other airports since the summer, especially targeting people who had overstayed visas in the past. Immigration agents have also held green card holders in a windowless room in the airport for days at a time , a San Francisco Chronicle investigation found.

De Bremaeker said Albornoz Hernandez had no criminal record or previous arrests; a Berkeleyside search of Alameda County and federal court records did not turn up any criminal history.

“This is somebody who was very much known with the government, she had been complying at every step, she was doing everything she was supposed to do and obviously excelling within the community,” De Bremaeker said.

Her arrest “demonstrates the arbitrary nature in which the government is arresting folks and how deeply it cuts into our communities,” he said.

In a petition filed in U.S. District Court Monday, attorneys with Centro Legal de la Raza argued that ICE’s arrest of Albornoz Hernandez violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution because officers did not present a warrant and did not interview her to determine whether she was a flight risk before taking her into custody. Berkeleyside has asked DHS for a response to those claims.

The petition asks the court to order Albornoz Hernandez’s release and prevent the government from detaining her again unless it can prove in a court hearing that she poses a flight risk or is a danger to the community.

In a letter of support attached to the petition, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons called Albornoz Hernandez “one of our outstanding students.”

“It takes remarkable dedication and perseverance to complete a degree at UC Berkeley,” he wrote. “I am deeply concerned that her current situation will unnecessarily interfere with the opportunity that she has earned, potentially impacting her academic progress.”

“I respectfully request that you make it possible for Paula to resume her studies with us,” he added.

Anthony described his girlfriend as hyper-responsible and studious and said she had long dreamed of attending UC Berkeley. The two met in school, he said: He was working towards his high school diploma and Albornoz Hernandez toward her GED.

“She always talked about Berkeley and how she wanted to get in,” he said. “I just admired how confident she was — she knew what she wanted and was going for it.”

They kept in touch as Albornoz Hernandez went on to San Jose City College, and started dating last summer. After transferring to UC Berkeley, he said, Albornoz Hernandez studied harder as she adapted to a more competitive environment. “She’s always working, day and night,” he said.

Anthony hoped the trip to Portland, which neither of them had visited before, could give her a chance to relax. They both love the outdoors, he said, and looked forward to going hiking, maybe seeing some waterfalls.

He has always been protective of Albornoz Hernandez’s safety, he said, taking time from his own studies and job as a welder to drive her from evening church services in Hayward back to Berkeley, then trekking home to San Jose. Now, he said he is plagued by guilt that the trip he planned unexpectedly led to her arrest, but tries to stay focused on getting her released soon.

Albornoz Hernandez’s friends at UC Berkeley have also helped out, he said, informing professors about her absence so she doesn’t fall too far behind.

“We want her to not miss out on her schooling because this is her dream,” he said.

The Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership is advising anyone with an uncertain immigration status to avoid traveling by plane without consulting an attorney first. They have also urged anyone who is detained or witnesses an ICE arrest to call their hotline .

Albornoz Hernandez is scheduled for a hearing in immigration court on Nov. 17, De Bremaeker said. The immigration case is separate from the federal case challenging her detention.

Alex N. Gecan contributed reporting.

Berkeleyside partners with the nonprofit newsroom Open Campus on higher education coverage.

This story was originally published by Berkeleyside and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.