A major row broke out after Johns Hopkins University public health researcher Fatima Ameaka was detained by immigration authorities as she boarded a domestic flight on Tuesday. She was released later but the Department of Homeland Security said that she had overstayed her visa and violated the law. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen asked whether a researcher is the worst of the worst criminals that ICE needs to go after.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
“Fatima came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship & is a researcher at Johns Hopkins. She had previously filed for [temporary protected status] & currently has a pending asylum case. But ICE has detained her & is working to deport her. She is not the ‘worst of the worst’ & deporting her is not making us safer. We must stand up & speak out,” Van Hollen said in the post.
Who is Fatima Amaeka? Was she staying in the US illegally?
- 31-year-old Fatima Amaeka is a senior analyst at the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
- A native of Cameroon, Ameaka entered the US legally in June 2023 on a Fulbright Scholarship to study for a master's in public health.
- Her scholarship ended in June 2024 and she was hired as a research associate at the university in September.
- Ameaka's employers confirmed that she stayed on with a visa and had an employment authorization document expiring in December 2029.
- But DHS said Ameaka was admitted into the US as a 'nonimmigrant crewmember (Sea or Air) with authorization to remain in the country until June 14, 2024.
- Ameaka's attorney Benjamin Osorio told Washington Post that DHS's claim is untrue and that Ameaka came on a student visa and then applied for temporary protected status when the Joe Biden administration expanded it to include Cameroonians, as there was armed conflict in the country. Ameaka later applied for asylum, Osoria said.
But the Trump administration terminated TPS for Cameroonians.
Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, described Ameaka as “an extremely warm, kind, generous person.” He said Ameaka is a talented researcher who was studying how to improve public health responses to epidemic diseases.
Ameaka left two voicemails to people close to her when she got arrested. Later, she was released, and she headed for a hotel, reports said.
