A 66-year-old nanny arrested by federal immigration agents outside a home in San Francisco\u2019s Diamond Heights neighborhood was freed within hours on Friday after a federal judge ordered her immediate release, according to court filings.<\/p>\n
The woman, a Russian national who has lived in the United States for more than 12 years, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to a habeas corpus petition filed on her behalf.\u00a0Her attorney, who says he was contacted by her employer, added that the woman\u2019s family is still shaken and asked her name not to be used because they fear retaliation.<\/p>\n
Ghassan Shamieh, managing immigration attorney representing the detained woman, said his office received a frantic call shortly after the arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a phone call from the employer around 9:15 who called our office frantically saying, \u2018Our nanny was just arrested outside of our home. Masked people pulled up in an unmarked car and took her,\u2019\u201d Shamieh said.<\/p>\n
Shamieh says despite their requests to see the detainee who spent hours at the Sansome Street processing ICE center, they were denied access.<\/p>\n
Shamieh\u2019s team immediately filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court while she was being transported to the California City\u2019s detention center. She was released in Bakersfield Friday night after the court\u2019s order.<\/p>\n
A habeas petition is a legal action that challenges the lawfulness of a person\u2019s detention. It asks a federal judge to require the government to justify why someone is being held. If the court finds the detention unlawful, it can order the person\u2019s release.<\/p>\n
Immigration attorneys say a record number of habeas petitions have been filed in recent months. In the Northern District of California, federal judges have repeatedly sided with immigrants in these cases, ordering releases when they determined detentions lacked proper legal basis or due process protections.<\/p>\n
In this case, Shamieh\u2019s team also filed for a Temporary Restraining Order, which a federal judge granted the same day.<\/p>\n
According to the TRO, ICE officers did not present a warrant at the time of arrest and provided no explanation other than telling the nanny she was \u201cin removal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a pending immigration matter, she has legal authorization to work, she takes care of a family with two young kids. She means everything to this family,\u201d Shamieh said.<\/p>\n
The judge described it as \u201cinexplicable\u201d that a 66-year-old woman with no criminal history, who has lived in the United States since 2012, was detained without a hearing. The court ordered the government to immediately release her and barred ICE from re-detaining or deporting her without notice and a hearing.<\/p>\n
Court records show she was legally admitted to the U.S. on a visitor visa in 2012. She applied for asylum in 2014 and has attended all required immigration hearings, according to filings.<\/p>\n
Neighbors in Diamond Heights said they were stunned by the arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never heard of any sort of ICE or immigration action here in Diamond Heights. We do have a lot of nannies, so I am concerned,\u201d said resident Marty Grimes.<\/p>\n
Another resident, who asked not to be identified, said, nannies from other countries provide a very valuable service, \u201cespecially for parents who want to continue their careers. Having a nanny at home enables them to do that, and I think they deserve to be protected as well\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n
The federal government has until Feb. 17 to respond to the habeas petition. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 19 in federal court.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to requests for comment. They asked NBC Bay Area for a copy of the petition, which was provided along with the detainee\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
The detained woman, who has a pending asylum application, has an upcoming hearing on this case set for December 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 66-year-old nanny arrested by federal immigration agents outside a home in San Francisco\u2019s Diamond Heights neighborhood was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[14,348,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-178732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-immigration","9":"tag-investigation","10":"tag-san-francisco","11":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","12":"tag-san-francisco-news","13":"tag-sf","14":"tag-sf-headlines","15":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}