Federal Judge Orders Release of Berkeley Haas Undergrad Detained by ICE

Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, a 23-year-old Berkeley Haas undergraduate and Colombian asylum seeker, has been in ICE custody since agents arrested her at San Francisco International Airport on October 30. A federal judge on Tuesday (November 10) ordered her release

A federal judge has ordered the release of Paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, the Berkeley Haas undergraduate whom ICE agents arrested at San Francisco International Airport on October 30. UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons announced the ruling November 9 in a message to the campus.

“We’re relieved and overjoyed to share that, this morning, a federal judge ordered the release of our student, Paula Albornoz Hernandez,” Lyons writes.

Three other university leaders also signed the message: Fabrizio Mejia, interim vice chancellor for equity and inclusion; Gina Daly, interim associate vice chancellor of government and community relations; and Liliana Iglesias, director of the Undocumented Student Program. In his first message about the arrest, sent November 2, Lyons didn’t name her, citing student privacy laws. This one does.

Her attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker of the Oakland-based nonprofit Centro Legal de la Raza, told KQED that she was expected to be released Monday. Poets&Quants has not confirmed that she has left ICE’s California City Detention Facility in Kern County, where she has been held.

JUDGE FINDS DUE PROCESS VIOLATION

The ruling came from U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins. She granted Albornoz Hernandez’s habeas corpus petition and a temporary restraining order, the Daily Californian reports. Coggins found that ICE had violated the student’s right to due process by detaining her without first giving her a chance to challenge the detention.

“Due process forbids the government from detaining the noncitizen unless they are first provided with adequate notice and a pre-deprivation hearing before a neutral arbiter,” Coggins writes, according to Berkeleyside.

The order requires her immediate release and the return of her belongings, including her passport. It bars immigration officials from making her wear an electronic monitor unless they show at a future hearing that one is necessary. ICE must give seven days’ notice and hold a bond hearing before it can detain her again. It also has three days to confirm her release to the court.

The Department of Homeland Security criticized the judge but says it will follow the order. In a statement, the department calls Coggins “a Biden-appointed activist judge” and says the agency “complies with all lawful court orders.”

HER IMMIGRATION CASE CONTINUES

The ruling doesn’t resolve her immigration case. ICE has placed her in deportation proceedings, and her asylum claim will continue through immigration court, says Lizzie Fulton, who represents her in that case. School was on her mind throughout her detention.

“One of her big concerns while she was detained was missing classes,” Fulton says. “She called her graduate student instructor and asked how she can jump right back in when she’s released.”

Albornoz Hernandez, 23, is a business administration student in the Haas undergraduate Class of 2028. DHS says she came to the U.S. from Colombia on September 6, 2022, with permission to stay until March 6, 2023, and stayed past that date. De Bremaeker says she applied for asylum within the one-year deadline after suffering severe gender-based violence in Colombia. He says she also holds a valid work permit and has no criminal record.

A CAMPUS EFFORT

Her detention set off a broad campaign for her release. The university and De Bremaeker have said hers appears to be the first ICE detention of an active Berkeley student since the Trump administration began its mass deportation push last year. Elected officials and community leaders submitted about 30 letters of support, according to one report, and hundreds of students and community members rallied on Sproul Plaza on November 4.

In his message, Lyons thanks her legal team, the officials who wrote letters, staff in the Undocumented Student Program and the students who spoke up for her. He calls the ruling a reminder of what’s possible “when our community comes together to support one of our own.”

The university says it looks forward to welcoming her back to campus. It also says it will keep supporting her and her family as she returns to her studies.

See Poets&Quants’ original story here. 

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