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Federal Judge Orders ICE to Release UC Berkeley Student Detained at SFO, Citing Due Process Violation
A federal judge ruled that ICE violated Paula Albornoz Hernandez's right to due process when it detained her at San Francisco International Airport without a hearing, ordering her immediate release. The 23-year-old UC Berkeley student and asylum seeker with a valid work permit was expected to leave custody Monday, though her deportation case continues.
A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release a 23-year-old UC Berkeley student who was detained at San Francisco International Airport last month, ruling that the government violated her constitutional right to due process.
Paula Albornoz Hernandez, a Colombian asylum seeker with a pending case and a current work permit, was taken into custody by ICE on Oct. 30 as she prepared to board a flight to Oregon with her boyfriend. U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins ordered her immediate release and barred immigration officials from requiring her to wear an electronic monitor unless they can prove at a future hearing that such a condition is necessary.
The ruling does not end Albornoz Hernandez's immigration case. She remains in deportation proceedings, and her asylum application will continue in immigration court, according to her attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker. She was expected to leave the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert later Monday, with her boyfriend driving to pick her up.
The case centered on whether ICE could detain Albornoz Hernandez without first giving her a chance to challenge the detention. Coggins found that due process required the government to provide adequate notice and a hearing before taking her into custody. Her attorneys had argued that ICE's actions violated the Constitution because she was seized without an adequate opportunity to contest it in court.
Albornoz Hernandez entered the United States from Colombia in September 2022 on a visa that allowed her to stay until March 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS has said her pending asylum application and work authorization did not confer legal immigration status and that she remained in the country after her visa expired. In a statement Monday, the department described Coggins as a "Biden-appointed activist judge" but said the agency "complies with all lawful court orders." DHS also defended its policy of detaining immigrants at airports.
The detention sparked an outpouring of support at UC Berkeley, where students and administrators rallied around Albornoz Hernandez. Nearly 300 students gathered at Sproul Plaza last week to demand her release, and university officials helped coordinate legal and political backing. About 30 letters supporting her were submitted by elected officials and Bay Area leaders, including U.S. Reps. Lateefah Simon and Sam Liccardo, state Sen. Jesse ArreguÃn, state Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii.
UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons said Monday that the university was "relieved and overjoyed" by the judge's order. "This is a moment to remember what's possible when our community comes together to support one of our own," Lyons said in a campuswide message.
De Bremaeker told KQED that the release would allow his client to work more easily with her attorneys as she prepares her immigration case and to return to classes at Berkeley, which she had been worried about missing. "She was incredibly happy to see the news and to hear⦠that the federal judge had ordered her released," he said. "Her family is incredibly happy that she'll be home."
The ruling underscores the legal limits on ICE's practice of detaining immigrants at airports without prior judicial review, a policy that has drawn increasing scrutiny from civil rights advocates. For the Bay Area's immigrant communities and university campuses, the case highlights the stakes of due process protections and the power of organized community support in the face of federal enforcement actions.