A Russian woman spent a month in immigration detention despite having no document problems.

Alevtina Soboleva spent nearly a month in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. Then, the 59-year-old asylum seeker from Russia, living in Sunnyvale, returned to the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's how she got there. CBS News.

On the morning of August 16, Alevtina and her daughter left San Francisco International Airport.

"It was very difficult for both of us. I'm glad we're back home," admitted Alevtina's daughter, Daria.

Soboleva was detained on July 20 at the Buffalo airport when she and her daughter were preparing to fly home after a trip to Niagara Falls.

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Daria said that before boarding the flight, immigration officials stopped and detained her mother, even though her asylum application was still being processed.

For several days, Darya didn't know her mother's whereabouts. She said Soboleva was kept in a cage: she wasn't given anything to drink and had no access to the bathroom.

“She was crying, and my heart broke because she was so scared,” Daria noted.

The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Soboleva "is an unlawfully present Russian citizen who legally entered the United States in 2021 but failed to leave the country within the required timeframe."

"Any allegations of inadequate medical care and inability to contact family are untrue," the Department of Homeland Security said.

Soboleva arrived in the United States on a tourist visa. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, she applied for asylum.

On August 12, the Russian woman appeared before an immigration judge, who set her bail at $10,000.

Bill Hing, a professor of law and migration at the University of San Francisco, emphasized that Soboleva has serious grounds for asylum.

"The law says: if the likelihood of persecution is one in ten, asylum must be granted. This is only 10%, and based on that, I believe she will be granted asylum," he concluded.

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He said Soboleva's detention should serve as a warning to other immigrants considering flights, both international and domestic.

For Soboleva and her daughter, something else is more important now: tea, a warm blanket, and rest.

"I am full of hope and very grateful for all the help we have already received," Daria said in closing.

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