ICE arrests 23-year-old UC Berkeley student and asylum seeker at San Francisco airport

For context, a UC Berkeley student was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at San Francisco International Airport Friday while waiting to board a flight to Portland for a vacation with her boyfriend.

What happened

While UC Berkeley students and administration mobilize to backing her, paula Valentina Albornoz Hernandez, 23, is at present being held at ICE's California City Detention Center, agency records show. Attorneys at Centro Legal de la Raza have filed a habeas corpus petition challenging her detention.

Notably, the arrest probable represents the first ICE detention of an active UC Berkeley student since the Trump administration began its mass deportation push last year, stated both Niko De Bremaeker, a managing attorney at Centro Legal de la Raza, and university spokesperson Aileen Zerrudo.

In practice, the business administration student arrived in the U.S. From Colombia in 2022, De Bremaeker remarked. He remarked she overstayed her visa and applied for asylum based on experiencing "severe gender-based violence" in her home country, an application that is still pending. She had a valid work permit, De Bremaeker remarked, and had attended San Jose City College before transferring to Berkeley where she was conducting research on artificial intelligence.

The bottom line

For now, ICE arrests 23-year-old UC Berkeley student and asylum seeker at San Francisco remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.