Nearly two months after ICE agents whisked a beloved California nurse and professor from her home in Lodi, her university has ramped up calls for her release.
“She needs to come home,” said Eileen Fry-Bowers, dean for the University of San Francisco’s nursing school,in reference to Ann Lawani, who was arrested by immigration agents in September and has since been shuffled between detention centers in California, Texas, and Louisiana, in a series of opaque transfers.
Lawani, 39, came to the US in 2007. She established herself as a nursing professional, obtaining a master’s and doctoral degree in the field, before stepping into academia.
She steers two programs at the University of San Francisco, one a master’s entry program geared toward students with non-nursing backgrounds and another a bachelor’s program for students seeking to work in public health safety-net institutions.
“She basically has her hands on almost 300 students that she engages with on a regular basis,” Fry-Bowers said.
Lawani’s detention has sparked outcry from local lawmakers, who have advocated on her behalf to ICE authorities, as well as her students and colleagues, who say her absence is deeply felt on campus.
One of those students, Casey Murray, a nursing science graduate student, described Lawani as a warm educator who could recall the first and last names of pupils she had not seen since orientation.
“We have 37 days left until we graduate,” Murray said. “She has supported us to the fullest extent up until the point that she was kidnapped. We want her at our graduation, and we want her home with her family.”
Federal immigration officials say Lawani entered the US on a visitor’s visa in 2007, which she overstayed. She was issued a final order of removal in August 2013, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson.
Natalia Santanna, Lawani’s lawyer, confirmed the removal order, but noted that DHS’s account was “incomplete”.
“Dr Lawani applied for asylum within one year of being in the United States. And, in the same 2013 order, the immigration judge found that Ann would more likely than not face persecution in Nigeria and granted withholding of removal,” Santanna said. “That is not a temporary stay. It is a continuing bar to removal to Nigeria. Dr Lawani has lived in the United States pursuant to that grant of withholding of removal since 2013.”
Santanna said they have filed a habeas petition to challenge the legality of her detainment, which remains pending in California’s eastern district court.
Meanwhile, Lawani’s students and colleagues are continuing to mobilize around her.
Lawani sent Fry-Bowers a text about being in ICE’s custody, shortly after her arrest. Fry-Bowers, who was on vacation, heard from another dean that Lawani had been absent from a meeting, which she described as out of character.
After the school heard from Lawani’s family, they jumped into action, aiding with legal representation and registering their alarm with the area’s congressional delegation.
In late October, Josh Harder, a congressman, who represents Lawani’s district, expressed his concerns about her case to DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin, among them the lack of notice before her arrest and her various whereabouts not being reflected in an online detainee database.
“Given her longstanding compliance, lack of criminal history, and substantial community ties, there is no apparent public safety justification for keeping her detained thousands of miles from home while her case proceeds,” Harder wrote then in a letter.
Fry-Bowers praised Lawani, citing her work with patients in hospice and palliative care.
“She cares for the most vulnerable, helps them maintain their dignity and comfort as they prepare for death,” she said. “She is a consummate professional. The highest praise I could ever give a nursing colleague is that I would want them taking care of my family member or myself, and she would be at the top of the list.”
