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Bay Area nurse detained at ICE check-in, deported to Kenya after 20 years

Sep 14, 2026·Location: San Francisco, CA

Country of origin: Kenya

Bay Area nurse detained at ICE check-in, deported to Kenya after 20 years
Photo via KQED

Maureen Wanjiru Ngure, a 38-year-old public health nurse from Concord, California, was detained by ICE on August 14 during a routine check-in at the federal immigration office in San Francisco. Ngure came to the U.S. from Kenya in 2006 on a visitor's visa, became a nurse, married, had two children, and volunteered with Contra Costa County's COVID-19 response team, never missing a check-in in nearly two decades. She and her husband, Peter Mang'ara Muchendu, both U.S. citizens raising their children in the Bay Area, had been planning to relocate the family to Canada after she was offered a healthcare job there. Following her detention, she was transferred through facilities in California, Arizona, and Louisiana, at times sleeping on floors and losing her ID, phone, and wallet. She was served a third-country deportation order and ultimately deported to Kenya. "I felt depressed, I felt confused, I was asking the question: why," Ngure said.

Timeline

Sep 14, 2026—Held at a detention facility in Louisiana about a month after detention, separated from husband and children
Sep 14, 2026—Transferred through detention centers in California, Arizona, and Louisiana before being served a third-country deportation order and deported to Kenya
Aug 14, 2026—Detained by ICE during a routine check-in at the federal immigration office in San Francisco
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