Judge Orders Release of UC Berkeley Student From ICE Custody After SFO Arrest
Paula Albornoz Hernandez, a 23-year-old UC Berkeley student whose arrest by federal immigration agents at San Francisco International Airport caused an outcry on campus and from lawmakers, will be released Monday after more than a week in custody, according to court records.
Her attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, confirmed to KQED that Albornoz Hernandez will be released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert later Monday.
De Bremaeker said her boyfriend is already on the way to pick her up.
“She was incredibly happy to see the news and to hear about the news that the federal judge had ordered her released. … Her family is incredibly happy that she’ll be home,” the attorney said.
Albornoz Hernandez had escaped gender-based violence in Colombia, where she was born, and applied for asylum after entering the U.S. in 2022, De Bremaeker said.
She had been complying with all of her paperwork and hearings when she was detained at SFO while trying to travel to Portland with her boyfriend, her attorney said.
She was then transported to the remote ICE facility, where recent investigations have uncovered “inhumane” conditions and “crisis-level” medical staffing shortages.
“That detention center needs to be closed,” De Bremaeker said.
Her legal team argued that the sudden arrest violated her rights to due process guaranteed in the Constitution, and challenged the legality of her detention.
In a statement to KQED last week, the Department of Homeland Security said work authorization or a pending asylum application — both of which Albornoz Hernandez has — does “NOT confer legal status in the United States.”
The agency added that detention is “a choice,” since immigrants have the ability to “self-deport.”
U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins ultimately sided with Albornoz Hernandez, noting that ICE also failed to provide a “constitutionally compliant pre-deprivation bond hearing,” according to the court filing.
Coggins ordered Albornoz Hernandez released immediately, without additional restrictions like ankle monitors, and all of her possessions, including her passport, returned.
“Judges have been overwhelmingly finding these arrests by ICE to be unlawful and in violation of the Constitution,” De Bremaeker said.
In the days after her detention, Albornoz Hernandez’s friends, family and school community rallied around her. The Daily Californian reported that nearly 300 students flooded into the campus’s Sproul Plaza last Wednesday to call for her release.
In a campuswide email shared on Friday, the university said that it had “mounted a significant advocacy effort for Paula” and that approximately 30 letters of support were submitted by community leaders — including U.S. Reps. Lateefah Simon and Sam Liccardo, state Sen. Jesse Arreguín, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii.
“All the support definitely had an impact,” De Bremaeker said. It “really showed that Paula had very strong ties to the community.”
In a statement on Monday, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons said the school was relieved and overjoyed to have learned of Albornoz Hernandez’s release.
“This is a moment to remember what’s possible when our community comes together to support one of our own,” Lyons said.