A Concord mother is being held in Louisiana, far from her children.

Maureen Wanjiru Ngure is a Kenyan nurse who studied nursing in the U.S. and has worked in Bay Area hospitals for eight years. She is a wife and mother of two from Concord, California. Her husband and children are U.S. citizens.

On August 14, 2026, Maureen was wrongfully detained at a mandated appointment at the San Francisco ICE office and served a third-country deportation order. She is a community volunteer on the Contra Costa County Covid Team and, according to her family, never missed a DHS appointment in twenty years in the United States. She had also been selected for a Canadian nursing employment pathway program.

In the days that followed, she was transferred through detention centers in California, Arizona, and Louisiana. Her family reports that she slept on floors, and that her ID, phone, and wallet were lost in transit. She was driven to an airport to be flown to an unnamed country before a last-minute deportation halt returned her to custody.

Maureen is currently being held at Richwood Detention Center in Monroe, Louisiana, far from her home and family in California. Her attorneys are seeking her immediate release. Her detention has separated a family and created urgent legal, travel, advocacy, and family-support costs.

We are respectfully asking for help to bring Maureen home.