Fatima Ameaka, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities as she boarded a domestic flight on Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security said she had overstayed her visa, and she now remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
Ameaka entered the country on June 27, 2023, with a visa valid until June 13, 2024. According to a DHS statement, she overstayed that visa “in violation of our nation’s laws.” She will remain in custody pending removal.
She was boarding a flight to Florida when she was taken into custody. She managed to leave two voicemails on Tuesday night for Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, where she works as a research associate. Since then, he says, there has been no word from her. “We haven’t heard from her since,” Inglesby said. “Not her family, not her friends, her coworkers or her lawyers.”
Ameaka was initially held in Baltimore, then moved to Virginia, and then transferred overnight to an ICE processing center in South Louisiana, according to Inglesby.
Inglesby said Ameaka requires medication for a medical condition, and there is no information whether she has access to it through ICE. He expressed deep worry: “We are very worried. We don’t know where she is. We don’t know what is happening to her or why.”
Johns Hopkins University has said it is actively working to support Ameaka, including ensuring she has legal representation.
Briana Arnold, an immigration partner at Killian Law Group, said such arrests are becoming more common as ICE and the Transportation Security Administration share more information. She advises clients without current lawful status to avoid domestic travel. “We’re in a time where it doesn’t seem that the support of anyone, even your local representative, is really helping anybody’s case,” Arnold said.
Colleagues and friends have raised more than $40,000 through an online fundraiser for her legal expenses. Inglesby praised her: “She is beloved, both by her coworkers at Johns Hopkins, by her community, by her family. She is a super competent researcher at our center.” He added, “We’re just extremely distressed by what’s happened to her.”
Ameaka had previously filed for Temporary Protected Status and has a pending asylum case, which adds complexity to her situation.