Judge Orders ICE to Release UC Berkeley Student Arrested at SFO
The 23-year-old business major and Colombian asylum seeker had been held at the California City Detention Facility. Her attorney said she would be released Monday.
By the Bay Area Brief staff · Edited by Seamus McKenna · · 2 min read
West front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo: Architect of the Capitol (derivative work) / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped, resized and color-graded). Archive photo of the area; not a photo of the events in this story.
A federal judge on Monday, Nov. 9, ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release UC Berkeley student Paula Albornoz Hernandez, who was arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Oct. 30, KQED reported.
Albornoz Hernandez, 23, is a business administration major and a Colombian asylum seeker. U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins found that ICE failed to provide a constitutionally required hearing before detaining her and ordered her released immediately, without an ankle monitor, and her belongings, including her passport, returned, KQED reported. Her attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, said she would be released later Monday from the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert and that her boyfriend was on the way to pick her up.
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Immigration agents arrested a 23-year-old UC Berkeley student at San Francisco International Airport on Friday, her attorney said. She is now being held at ICE's California City facility, and campus leaders are asking that she be allowed to return to school.
Her attorney, Niko De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, said she was released from the California City detention center around 9 p.m. Monday, the day a federal judge ordered ICE to let her go.
Raymond Allen Pearce was arrested near UC Berkeley and charged Friday with contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime, extortion and other counts, police said. A parent reported the case on Oct. 12. The charges are allegations.
The presence of federal agents prompted immigration speculation on social media. Police Chief Jen Louis told the Police Accountability Board the FBI had notified the city in advance, and that BPD had no verified information ICE was in Berkeley that day.
