A Maryland teacher of the year was detained by ICE weeks ago. His day in court is coming.

After more than three weeks in immigration detention, a University of Maryland School of Pharmacy instructor is expected to appear in court Friday for the first time.

Berhanu Kibret, one of two Maryland academics recently detained as part of a new federal push to arrest immigrants at airports, is scheduled to appear virtually for a bond hearing at the Aurora Immigration Court in Colorado, according to his attorneys, Ronia Dubbaneh and Saron Berhe.

A judge is expected to decide whether Kibret, who has been held in Oklahoma, can be released while his case moves through the courts. Kibret was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on July 21 after winning a teacher of the year award at an industry association meeting.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused him of overstaying his visa, which expired in May 2024. But his lawyer has said that Kibret, who is originally from Ethiopia, has valid work authorization after applying for another form of legal immigration status.

The recent detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have unsettled Maryland’s academic communities, which recruit talent from across the globe, and have prompted some school administrators to mobilize in support.

Since Kibret’s arrest, “numerous” colleagues have written letters of support for Kibret’s release on behalf of his legal team, according to a statement from Sarah L.J. Michel, dean of the pharmacy school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, responding to questions from The Banner.

“At UMB, we care deeply about the members of our campus and strive to do everything we can to put our community — including our students, faculty, and staff — first,” Michel wrote.

The letters of support provide insight into how universities are trying to help employees caught in the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive campaign to deport immigrants.

In a separate case, Fatima Ameaka, a public health researcher at the Johns Hopkins University, originally from Cameroon, was arrested on July 28 at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport for allegedly overstaying a visa. In contrast to Kibret, Ameaka was released within days and is now awaiting her next court hearing.

Emmanuel Onaivi, a biology professor at William Paterson University in New Jersey and longtime mentor of Kibret, said officials from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, had asked him to also contribute a letter on Kibret’s behalf.

Onaivi described Kibret as a “very nice and remarkable individual” who has made impressive contributions as a researcher as well as a teacher. His arrest, Onaivi added, “is very devastating.”

Onaivi was visiting Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in 2013 as a Fulbright scholar when he met Kibret, then a graduate student. Kibret was researching khat, a plant that, when chewed, produces an effect similar to cocaine and is sometimes used by students to stay awake when studying late into the night, Onaivi said.

A few years later, Kibret came to the U.S. to finish his Ph.D. research and to work as a postdoctoral fellow in Onaivi’s lab at William Paterson.

Over the next decade, they worked together closely. Kibret’s office was next door to Onaivi’s, and they talked nearly every day, Onaivi said.

During this time, Kibret financially supported his wife and two young children, who continued to live in Ethiopia, according to Onaivi.

Michael Peek, chair of the biology department at William Paterson, said that in addition to working as a researcher, Kibret helped mentor students and taught classes in microbiology and anatomy and physiology as an adjunct professor.

“We have a long history of bringing and training the best minds in the world and we should continue that process regardless of country of origin,” Peek said. “There are a lot of smart people in the world and we should give them every opportunity to be able to share their strengths.”

In 2023, Kibret accepted a full-time job teaching at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, where he instructs first-year students on how drugs work in the body and on drug safety and efficacy, Michel, the pharmacy school dean, wrote in an email.

His peers had bestowed on him the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year Award, according to Michel. Additionally, several pharmacy students had cited him as their favorite teacher on National Teacher Appreciation Day in May.

“His colleagues value his expertise, collaborative spirit, and dedication to student success, while students consistently cite him as a favorite teacher, which is unusual for a basic scientist given how difficult his subject matter is,” Michel wrote.

“Everyone is extremely concerned about his well-being,” the statement said.

Kibret and Onaivi have continued to collaborate, most recently on an academic paper published while Kibret has been detained. For weeks he’s been held at Diamondback Correctional Facility in Oklahoma, a 2,160-bed facility run by private prison company CoreCivic.

The article details researchers’ efforts to study the brains of genetically engineered mice to learn about pain, inflammation and opioid and cannabinoid receptors. Researchers hope to find ways to reduce pain without using addictive substances like opioids, which have contributed to a deadly overdose crisis, Onaivi said.

But since Kibret’s arrest, according to Onaivi, the work on three more papers has been put on hold.

Banner reporter Daniel Zawodny contributed to this story.