A Johns Hopkins public health researcher who arrived in the US on a Fulbright scholarship was freed late Friday after a multistate stint in immigration detention that began as she tried to board a domestic flight on Tuesday. Federal officials say 31-year-old Cameroonian national Fatima Ameaka overstayed her visa, but her attorney calls that "not true" and points to government records he says show she holds valid work authorization through 2029 and has lawful temporary protected status, along with a pending asylum claim, per the Washington Post.
Ameaka—who Johns Hopkins says has a doctoral degree in pharmacy, per ABC News—was taken from Baltimore-Washington International Airport to ICE facilities in Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas before her release, in a case that lawyers say illustrates the Trump administration's push to use domestic air travel to identify and deport foreign nationals. A DHS detention notice listed her as a "nonimmigrant crew member" who remained past June 2024; Customs and Border Protection records instead show she entered on a J-1 student visa, her lawyer says.
Johns Hopkins officials say they're supporting her defense, and colleagues quickly raised more than $40,000 for legal costs. "The university understands the fear and concern this instills in members of our community," a spokesperson noted. "We're just extremely distressed by what's happened to her," adds Tom Inglesby, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, where Ameaka works as a researcher, per WBAL. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen criticized the effort to deport a researcher he said is not among the "worst of the worst." Her immigration case remains active.
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