Colleagues and students of detained Nigerian-born, US-based Nursing Professor, Ann Lawani detained over alleged immigration case, are on the edge, not too sure her whereabouts nor wellbeing.
They are thus rallying for her release from the custody of the United States of America Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
“She needs to come home,” said Eileen Fry-Bowers, dean for the University of San Francisco School of Nursing, a Guardian report on Lawani who came to the US in 2007, said.
She established herself as a nursing professional, obtaining a master’s and doctoral degree in the field, before stepping into academia.
According to reports, the Nigerian-born lady currently oversees two critical, medical-relates programmes at the university.
These are a master’s entry programme for students with non-nursing backgrounds and a bachelor’s programme for students seeking to work in public health safety-net institutions.
One of those students, Casey Murray, a nursing science graduate student, describes her as warm.
“She basically has her hands on almost 300 students that she engages with on a regular basis,” Fry-Bowers said.
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.”
Immigration Case
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”.
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“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.”
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.
-Adapted from The Guardian
Culled
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