bringmymomhome.com

Sunnyvale, California · A-Number A240031600

25 days in ICE detention · home in Sunnyvale since August 16, 2026

My mother did everything right.
We brought her home.

Alevtina Soboleva, 59 — an asylum seeker from Sunnyvale, California, with no criminal record — was detained at the Buffalo airport on July 20 and held for 25 days across three facilities, sick and untreated, her case absent from the court system for her first nine days. On August 12, at her first hearing, an immigration judge granted her bond. On August 13, her daughter picked her up in person — and on August 16, they came home to Sunnyvale together. Her asylum case continues.

Watch the interview Read her story Press & interviews

August 16, 2026

She is home.

On August 12 — day 24 of her detention — Alevtina stood before an immigration judge for the first time, and the judge granted her release on bond. Her family posted it, and on the early evening of August 13, after confirming that DHS had not appealed the decision, Daria picked her mother up from the Louisiana facility in person. On August 16, they walked back through their own front door in Sunnyvale — together. We brought my mom home.

Her asylum case continues. And her family wants to say thank you: to her legal team, who fought for weeks — through nine days when the court system had no record of her — to get her in front of a judge; to the office of Rep. Ro Khanna, engaged since her fourth day in custody; to the journalists who shone a light on her story; and to her community, whose letters became part of her file.

And this is not the end of the story. Alevtina is now resting and recovering at home with her family — and soon, she will share her experience — in her own words — with the world.

This page stands as a record of what happened — and it will grow as she tells her story.

In the news

Watch

The first interview

First interview with Daria Soboleva Coming soon — this space is reserved

Who she is

Her story

My mother, Alevtina Soboleva, is 59 years old. She came to the United States lawfully in October 2021 and applied for political asylum in April 2022. That application has been pending ever since — and she has been fully compliant at every step.

She built a quiet, careful life in Sunnyvale, California. She holds a valid work permit, a California REAL ID, and active medical insurance. Since 2023 she has been an ESL student at Mission College in Santa Clara, learning English one class at a time. She has no criminal record of any kind — no arrests, no charges, no convictions.

She lives with me — her daughter, Daria, a lawful permanent resident and Head Research Scientist at Cerebras Systems. Our home is her home, and I am prepared to take custody of her the moment she is released.

On July 20 — at the end of a short trip to see Niagara Falls, a childhood dream of hers, on the U.S. side — she was stopped at the Buffalo airport before her flight home to California by three plain-clothes officers who called it a document check. No documents were requested. She has not been home since. She has never left the United States in the nearly five years since she arrived.

What happened

25 days. Three facilities. Bond granted on day 24.

  1. July 20 Buffalo, New York

    Returning to California from a short domestic trip to Niagara Falls, she is detained at the airport before her flight home by three plain-clothes officers who called it a document check. No documents were requested. The family was told she would stay in Buffalo a couple of days and could then transfer to California — that there would be no handcuffs, and that mother and daughter would be able to talk.

  2. July 21 Mahoning County Jail, Ohio

    Moved overnight. The family learned of the transfer only from ICE's online locator. Staff took the family's number and promised a call in a few hours. None was permitted.

  3. July 22 Basile, Louisiana

    Moved again, by air, to the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center — her third facility in under three days. Her attorney entered an appearance (Form G-28).

  4. July 23 Staged for a removal flight

    She waited half a day at an airport before being returned to Basile. In a written email, a facility official told her attorney she was deported — while ICE's own locator showed her in custody at Basile. The office of Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17) engages.

  5. July 24 First phone call

    Four days after her detention, her first call with her daughter. Congressional staff confirm in writing that she appears on ICE's locator while no record of her case exists in the immigration court's public system.

  6. July 25 First video contact

    She is visibly ill — a fever with no medication, no warm clothing against the facility's heavy industrial air conditioning, and no glasses, which she needs to read forms or use the phone system.

  7. July 26 Locked out of court

    Her bond motion is ready but cannot be filed: six days after her detention, her case still does not appear in the immigration court system. She has had no confidential call with her attorney.

  8. July 29 On the docket at last

    Nine days after her detention, her case is entered into the immigration court system — the first day her attorney could ask a judge for anything on her behalf. For those nine days she could be held, moved, and staged for removal, but could not request release.

  9. July 30 First call with her attorney

    Ten days after the airport, her first phone conversation with her legal counsel since her detention — placed on the facility's standard recorded tablet line, not a confidential legal call.

  10. August 12 Bond granted

    On day 24 of her detention, she stands before an immigration judge for the first time. At her hearings that day — master calendar and bond — the judge grants her release on bond.

  11. August 13 Released

    Bond posted. After confirming that DHS had not appealed the decision, Daria drives to Louisiana and, on the early evening of August 13, walks out of the facility with her mother — 25 days after the airport.

  12. August 16 Home — Sunnyvale, California

    She is home. Twenty-eight days after the airport, mother and daughter walk back through their own front door.

Her health

Her health, plainly stated

Her family did not plan to make her medical history public. Partway through her detention, they no longer felt they could keep it private. What follows is stated as plainly as possible — every condition below predates her detention and is documented in her medical records in California.

Cerebellar ataxia
A progressive neurological disorder affecting balance and coordination — diagnosed before her detention. Her doctors had projected that she could lose the ability to walk, and be in a wheelchair, within a few years; that she was still walking at all, they considered remarkable. In her calls from detention she reported feeling too unsteady to cross a room without keeping a hand on the wall.
Stroke risk factors
High cholesterol and prediabetes — elevated blood sugar — both diagnosed. During the July 22–23 transfers — restrained for hours in a small enclosure, refused water — she feared she was having a stroke.
Hearing loss, left ear
She does not hear in her left ear and uses a prescribed hearing aid. It was not with her in detention. Without it — and without her glasses — the facility's phone and tablet systems were close to unusable for her, which is part of why reaching her own family took days.
Untreated illness
A fever, severe sore throat, and headaches, reported in every call from July 24 onward. She reported being given no medication, and said that warm clothing and medicine shared with her by other detainees were confiscated by staff.

Taken together: she spent those 25 days at 59, with a progressive balance disorder that kept one hand on the wall when she walked, an untreated fever, hearing she could not correct without her hearing aid, sight she could not correct without her glasses, and two diagnosed stroke risk factors — compounded by menopause — in a facility cold enough that detainees wore layers she did not have. Her family is not asking anyone to take their word for any of this. The records exist.

Sources: her medical records in California; her calls of July 24–30, as relayed by her family.

In their words

What they said — and what happened

What officials said
“A document check.” — Officers at the Buffalo airport, July 20
What happened

No documents were ever requested. She was taken into custody before her flight home.

What officials said
“A couple of days” in Buffalo, then a transfer to California. — What the family was told, July 20
What happened

Overnight to a county jail in Ohio. Then, by air, to Louisiana — roughly 2,000 miles from home.

What officials said
A call to the family “in a few hours.” — Jail staff, July 21
What happened

No call was permitted. Her first phone call home came four days after she was detained.

What officials said
She “was deported.” — A facility official, in a written email to her attorney, July 23
What happened

ICE's own online locator showed her in custody at Basile, Louisiana, the entire time.

A windowless cell “the size of a small bathroom” — where she suffered panic attacks, in handcuffs and chains that officers declined to loosen.
Alevtina's own account, from her calls of July 24–25
My mother followed every rule this country gave her. She has spent a week being moved, chained, and hidden from the court that is supposed to hear her. All we are asking is that the system see her — and send her home.
— Daria Soboleva, her daughter

During her detention

What she faced

Her firsthand account

In her calls of July 24–25, she described being held for hours in vehicles and aircraft with restroom access and drinking water refused, and being unable to eat for her first three days in custody.

Her health

Through her weeks in custody she was ill and untreated — a fever and severe sore throat, with no medication — while living with a progressive neurological disorder, hearing loss, and two diagnosed stroke risk factors. The full medical picture is above.

No confidential attorney access

Her first call with her legal counsel came only in her second week of custody — on the facility's recorded tablet system, the same line used for every other call — with her attorney in California, roughly 2,000 miles from the Louisiana facility where she was held.

Locked out of court

For nine days, her case appeared nowhere in the immigration court system, making a bond request impossible to file. It took until day 24 — August 12 — for a judge to hear her at all. When one finally did, she was granted bond the same day.

Why return is not an option

Deportation would send a 59-year-old woman, alone, back to a country at war — one where criticizing that war is now a crime, and where having sought political asylum in the United States is itself viewed by the authorities with hostility. Everyone she has — her daughter, her family, her community, everyone who could care for her — is in California. The specific basis of her asylum claim is before USCIS and is deliberately not detailed on this page, to protect her case and the people connected to it.

During her detention, the family asked ICE to

Five things — none of them extraordinary

  1. Provide immediate medical evaluation and treatment — including for her progressive neurological disorder — and her basic medical equipment: medication, warm clothing, her glasses, and her hearing aid.

  2. Ensure uninterrupted, confidential access between Ms. Soboleva and her legal counsel.

  3. Hear her bond request promptly, and keep her where she is — no further no-notice transfers before her August 12 hearing.

  4. Transfer her to California, where her attorney, family, and support network are located.

  5. Exercise prosecutorial discretion to release her into her daughter's custody while her asylum case proceeds.

On August 12, an immigration judge granted her bond. On August 13, she was released into her daughter's care. These five asks stand as the record of what her family spent 24 days requesting.

From her community

The letters have started arriving

Excerpts from messages sent to the family. Names withheld.

“She always comes early … sometimes we do warm-ups and practice rallying before class starts. She’s very smart, and she would always try to help me get better at the game.”
— A classmate from her badminton class at Mission College
“I was going to invite her to play with us outside of class. By the time I had that idea, she stopped showing up. I just kept thinking, I’ll ask her next time … May my deepest wishes and hopes reach her.”
— A classmate from her badminton class at Mission College
“Although I did not meet her, a friend told me about her … We wish for her to be transferred back here, where she lives.”
— A Mission College student
“I would like to do something for Alevtina. I know it is not something our parents want us to do — to stand up to the government … but what is happening is wrong.”
— A member of the local Russian-speaking community

Add your voice

How to help

Two ways to stand with her

For everyone

She is home on bond, but her asylum case continues — and letters still matter. If you know Alevtina — as a neighbor, a classmate, a fellow student at Mission College, or a member of her community — a short letter of support strengthens her file. And keep sharing this page: her story is not over.

outreach@bringmymomhome.com

Send a letter of support

Letters are collected by her family and shared with her legal team. Short excerpts may be shared on this page — always anonymously, never with names. Tell us if you'd rather your words stay private.

For press

This story continues, and further press is welcome. Interviews with Daria Soboleva and legal counsel are available — and now that she is home and recovering, Alevtina will be telling her own story soon. Requests to speak with her can be made through the media line below. The press kit includes the press release, fact sheet, detailed timeline, quote sheet, backgrounder, and nine approved family photographs with captions.

Danni McInnis
+1 (209) 224-9295
media@bringmymomhome.com

Download press kit Contact the media line

Facts on this page are drawn from the family's fact sheet, updated July 28, 2026.