The whereabouts of a Northern California nurse and professor at the University of San Francisco were unknown for nearly two months after she was abruptly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and sent thousands of miles away to Louisiana.
Family, students, community members, and U.S. Rep. Josh Harder, D-Calif., have called on the Trump Administration to release Ann Lawani, a Nigerian immigrant who has served the community of Lodi, California, about 35 miles from Sacramento, for over a decade.
"Dr. Lawani has no criminal history and has spent more than a decade serving her community as a nurse, educator, and caregiver," Harder said in a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security. "Her detention raises serious questions about the Department's
enforcement priorities and its treatment of individuals who pose no threat to public safety."
For nearly 13 years, Lawani lived in Lodi, where she served as a nurse at John Muir Health and balanced her duty as a caretaker for her 83-year-old father. Additionally, taught at the University of San Francisco in the School of Nursing and Health Professions, overseeing 230 nursing students and managing partnerships with 38 clinical sites.
Samuel Lawani, Lawani's brother, denounced the federal government's action as "evil" and "consequential," noting that his sister had wrongfully been detained and that it has significantly affected the community.
“My sister is an amazing caregiver, healthcare leader, and educator in our community, and I was devastated not just at her unacceptable arrest, but the decision to send her across the country and detain her unnecessarily," he said.
"She gives everything she has, daily, to save lives and train the nurses of the future to be as trained, ready and dedicated as she is. As a recognized expert in palliative care as well, I can assure anyone, countless lives have been lost due to her absence, since her wrongful detainment."
On Sept. 16, immigration agents arrested and detained Lawani at her home in Lodi, where she was then transferred to law enforcement facilities in Stockton, Bakersfield, and El Paso before arriving at a detention immigration facility in Louisiana, according to ABC 10.
Since her transfer to Louisiana, folks close to Lawani noted that she has not appeared in Immigration and Customs Enforcement's database, according to the New York Times. This appears intentional, as the Department of Homeland Security changed its policies regarding detainees, noting that detainees with final deportation orders would no longer appear on the public database, according to the New York Times.
On Oct. 20, Harder sent a letter to DHS, arguing that the federal government violated an order withholding her removal to Nigeria granted by a federal immigration judge in 2013, believing she would likely face persecution.
However, the Department of Homeland Security noted in a statement that Lawani overstayed a visitor visa after entering the United States in 2007. Although she applied for asylum, 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. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the United States," the department's statement reads.
However, her attorney, Natalia Vieira Santana, told ABC 10, that the situation is complicated. Vieira Santana confirmed that Lawani received an order of removal, but added that the judge also issued an order withholding her removal that same day and noted that she had work authorization through 2029, according to ABC 10.
Eileen K. Fry-Bowers, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of San Francisco, also called on the federal government to release Lawani from their custody, noting that continued absence of the school has caused "real and mounting harm to the students and faculty."
“I speak with confidence to what I know firsthand: Dr. Ann Lawani is a person of exceptional professional accomplishment and moral character, deeply embedded in our university community, with responsibilities that hundreds of nursing students and, in turn, the patients they will someday care for, depend upon her fulfilling," Fry-Bowers said.
Fry-Bowers also created a Change petition to raise awareness of Lawani's situation, and as of Nov. 11, it has garnered over 9,800 signatures.
"Instead, federal agents have devoted significant resources to detaining and transporting individuals like Dr. Lawani, who have no criminal history. Her case illustrates the troubling consequences of an enforcement approach that fails to adequately distinguish between individuals who threaten our communities and those who help sustain them," Harder said in his letter.
"I therefore urge you to direct ICE to release Dr. Lawani under an order of supervision and facilitate her immediate return to California while her legal proceedings continue."
Noe Padilla is a Northern California Reporter for USA Today. Contact him at npadilla@usatodayco.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social. Sign up for the TODAY Californian newsletter or follow us on Facebook at TODAY Californian.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Northern California nurse and professor detained by ICE for months
