Attorneys argue arrest violated federal law, citing no warrant and no flight-risk review
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, a 23-year-old UC Berkeley business administration student, at San Francisco International Airport on Friday as she waited to board a flight to Portland for a vacation with her boyfriend. Albornoz Hernandez is being held at ICE’s California City Detention Center, agency records show, while students and administrators at the university mobilize to support her and attorneys at Centro Legal de la Raza press a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention.
The arrest likely marks the first ICE detention of an active UC Berkeley student since the Trump administration began its mass deportation push last year, according to Niko De Bremaeker, a managing attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza, and university spokesperson Aileen Zerrudo.
Albornoz Hernandez arrived in the United States 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 remains pending. She held 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.
The arrest unfolded Friday night in the gate area, according to her boyfriend, Anthony, whom Berkeleyside, the newsroom that originally reported the story, agreed to identify by his first name only because of the sensitivity of the case. He said the couple had arrived early for a weekend getaway he hoped would take Albornoz Hernandez’s mind off a heavy course load. An ICE agent in plain clothes approached her and asked her name, saying she looked familiar, Anthony said. Without identifying himself as working for ICE, the agent guessed a couple of different names, to which Albornoz Hernandez said no, he said. The third time, Anthony said, the agent guessed right. Once Albornoz Hernandez confirmed her name, agents separated the couple, then told her that her visa was expired and they were going to detain her, he said.
“It was scary seeing that my partner was getting ripped apart from me and there’s nothing I can do about it,” Anthony said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed by email that ICE agents 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 spokesperson denied that agents failed to identify themselves, saying agents “clearly identify themselves as law enforcement in accordance with agency policy.” Asked why agents detained someone with a pending asylum application and a valid work permit, the spokesperson replied that “work authorization or a pending application does NOT confer legal status in the United States.”
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 a court-ordered investigation earlier this year found major flaws in the medical care provided to people detained there.
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 at the airport for days at a time, a San Francisco Chronicle investigation found.
In the petition filed in U.S. District Court on 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. The petition asks the court to order her release and to prevent the government from detaining her again unless it can prove at a hearing that she poses a flight risk or is a danger to the community. Berkeleyside has asked DHS for a response to those claims.
De Bremaeker said Albornoz Hernandez has 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, he said, “demonstrates the arbitrary nature in which the government is arresting folks and how deeply it cuts into our communities.”
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.” He added: “I respectfully request that you make it possible for Paula to resume her studies with us.”
Anthony described his girlfriend as hyper-responsible and studious, and said she had long dreamed of attending UC Berkeley. The two met in school, when he was working toward his high school diploma and Albornoz Hernandez was working toward her GED, he said. “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 attended San Jose City College, and started dating last summer, Anthony said. After her transfer to UC Berkeley, he said, she studied harder as she adapted to a more competitive environment. “She’s always working, day and night,” he said.
Anthony said he had hoped the trip to Portland, which neither had visited before, would give her a chance to relax. Both love the outdoors, he said, and had looked forward to hiking and perhaps seeing some waterfalls. A welder, he said he has long been protective of her safety, taking time from his own studies and job to drive her from evening church services in Hayward back to Berkeley before trekking home to San Jose. He said he is now plagued by guilt that the trip he planned led to her arrest, but is focused on getting her released soon. Friends at UC Berkeley have informed her professors about her absence so she does not fall behind, he said. “We want her to not miss out on her schooling because this is her dream,” Anthony 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, and has urged anyone who is detained or witnesses an ICE arrest to call its 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.
The story was originally published by Berkeleyside and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press; Berkeleyside partners with the nonprofit newsroom Open Campus on higher education coverage, and Alex N. Gecan contributed reporting.