Johns Hopkins researcher's arrest one of at least a dozen by ICE at area airports
The arrest and detainment of a Johns Hopkins researcher is one of the latest examples of increased immigration enforcement at airports.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Fatima Ameaka at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport this week as she was boarding a plane to Florida.
One of her colleagues at Johns Hopkins said no one has been able to talk with her since her arrest, which has caused her family and friends to worry.
Meanwhile, the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a legal services nonprofit, has been noticing an uptick in ICE arrests at airports around the region.
"She's beloved"
For the past two years, Ameaka has been working to improve how communities respond to infectious disease crises, such as measles outbreaks.
She's a senior analyst at the Center for Outbreak Response Innovation, which operates out of Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ameaka's colleague, Tom Inglesby, said she has a strong bond with her community there.
"She's an amazing person. This community is really supportive of her. She's beloved," Inglesby said.
The last they heard from Ameaka was Tuesday night, after she was already in ICE custody. As of Friday morning, an online ICE detainee locator has her location listed at the South Louisiana Correctional Center in Basile.
"We have been unable to reach her, her family has been unable to reach her, she's not been able to reach her lawyers," Inglesby said. "[Ameaka] has a chronic health condition...she takes medications for that. There's no mechanism by which [anyone is] able to convey that to the government."
In a statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a spokesman said Ameaka, who's from Cameroon, overstayed a visa that expired in 2024.
A Johns Hopkins University spokesman said the university is working to ensure Ameaka has legal representation. An online fundraiser by one of her friends has raised more than $40,000 for that effort as well.
More ICE arrests at airports
Ameaka is one of several arrests the Amica Center has heard of that have occurred at regional airports.
"At BWI, at Dulles, at Reagan, over the last couple of weeks, we've seen an alarming new pattern," Kelly Rojas, co-director of the center's Detained Adult Program, said.
Rojas said her team has heard of at least a dozen at the three airports, and all of them are people who entered the U.S. on legal visas.
Most have also been seeking other legal status, according to Rojas.
"We think it's because ICE is pursuing detention quotas with regards to underlying eligibility for relief, applications for relief, and also because many of those people are already in the system. [They] are easy targets for ICE," Rojas said.
ICE sources tell CBS News there is an increased collaboration between TSA and ICE.