Major row over airport detention of Johns Hopkins health researcher Fatima Ameaka; Colleagues say she is brilliant but DHS says she is an 'illegal'

Researcher Fatima Ameaka was detained by ICE and was later released. 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.“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'...