The whereabouts of a Northern California nurse and professor at the University of San Francisco remained known for two months after she was suddenly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ann Lawani, a Nigerian immigrant who has served the community of Lodi, California, was detained and sent thousands of miles away to Louisiana .
Lawani’s loved ones noticed that since being transferred to Louisiana, she has not appeared in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database, the New York Times reported. Immigration agents arrested and detained Lawani at her home in Lodi on September 16. She was then transferred to law enforcement facilities in Stockton, Bakersfield, and El Paso before arriving at a detention immigration facility in Louisiana, ABC 10 reported. Harder on October 20 sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, claiming that the federal government violated an order withholding her removal to Nigeria, which was granted by a federal immigration judge in 2013, believing she would possibly face persecution. The DHS, however, said in a statement that Lawani overstayed a visitor visa after she entered the US in 2007. She did apply fir asylum, but a federal immigration judge denied her request and issued a final order of removal in 2013. “She received due process and was issued a final order of removal on August 6, 2013. Lawani’s attorney, Natalia Vieira Santana, told ABC 10 that the situation is complicated. She said that her client received an order of removal, adding that the judge also issued an order withholding her removal that same day and said that she had work authorization through 2029.
She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States,” the department’s statement said.
Family, students, community members, and U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif., have urged the Trump Administration to release Lawani .
