Her detention stunned some of her fellow members of the Maine State Nurses Association union, an affiliate of National Nurses United, who advocated for her release. For those nurses, Kapisha’s sudden arrest was the latest sign of heightened immigration enforcement in southern Maine, after the surge of arrests in ICE’s wintertime Operation ‘Catch of the Day’ and the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a Colombian immigrant shot by an ICE agent in Biddeford last month.“Since everything’s been going on with ICE, we have been involved in social justice activities and protests,” Kelli Brennan, the co-president of Maine State Nurses Association, said in an interview Wednesday. “Now it just happened to one of our own.”Kapisha came to the US on a tourist visa in May 2024, according to the habeas corpus petition her lawyers filed July 31 challenging her detention in the US district court in Massachusetts. She applied for asylum shortly after entering the country, court filings show.Asylum seekers are allowed to stay in the US and can obtain work authorization while their applications are pending, according to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services document Kapisha received after applying.However, the document, which was filed in court with her habeas petition, notes that immigration enforcement agencies can start removal proceedings for someone with a pending asylum application.According to Kapisha’s attorneys, ICE did not have a warrant for her arrest, and she did not have any criminal record in the US. A spokesperson for Portland International Jetport referred questions about Kapisha’s arrest to ICE. The agency’s Boston office, which oversees ICE operations across New England, did not respond to emailed questions about her arrest.Abigail Nelson, 23, said in an interview Wednesday that she works in the nephrology unit with Kapisha, and met her about a year ago when Kapisha was just beginning her nursing career. Kapisha was first licensed as a nurse in June 2025, according to the Maine nurse registry database.“Debora is not only an amazing nurse, but she’s an amazing person,” Nelson said. She said Kapisha would offer to help other nurses on the floor after she finished tending to her assigned patients, instead of using the spare time to take a break.“She’ll look for other nurses running around and say, ‘What can I do for you?’,” Nelson said.Debora Kapisha, a Zambian national, works as a nurse in Portland.Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses UnitedKapisha often spoke about her family and her local church community, Nelson said. She wore scrub dresses or skirts to work, instead of pants, and is “very fashionable” with her outfits outside of work, Nelson said.After learning that Judge F. Dennis Saylor on Tuesday granted the government’s request to transfer Kapisha to Louisiana, the nurses association planned a press conference and rally Wednesday in Portland. Attendees learned at the rally that Saylor subsequently ruled that ICE could not transfer her out of New England before Monday, when Kapisha had an immigration court hearing scheduled in Chelmsford, Mass., according to the court docket. Kapisha, who suffers from a chronic illness, was released from custody Thursday, Doyle said. She had been detained at the ICE field office in Burlington, a processing center that has recently housed arrested immigrants — most often women — for days when judges bar the agency from moving detainees out of state, according to several New England immigration lawyers. Doyle said Kapisha was released at ICE’s discretion with conditions.“By the federal judge requiring her to stay in the New England area, and the fact that they cannot detain people in their Burlington facility for any kind of long term, and the fact that she has a chronic illness, I think they decided that it was better off having her released than to have any issues,” Doyle said.Kapisha was hospitalized in Massachusetts for her illness for a short period while she was in custody, Doyle said.She could not be reached for comment after her release. Her family was not available to comment, her lawyers said.At a Friday union gathering, a member read out a statement from Kapisha thanking all the nurses for their support.“I am so thankful to be home and can’t wait to return to my coworkers and patients,” she said in the statement.At the rally Wednesday, nurses chanted “Bring her home” and called on hospital leadership to help Kapisha. Troy Jackson, Maine’s Democratic nominee for Senate, reiterated their calls in a statement commending the union for its action and calling on hospital leadership to “take immediate steps to formally sponsor her for permanent residency.”MaineHealth, the nonprofit health care system that runs Maine Medical Center, said in a statement Wednesday that it was not formally notified of Kapisha’s arrest, but reached out to the state’s congressional delegation asking for information on her status.The health system said it vets its employees to ensure they are allowed to live and work in the US. Britt Crewse, MaineHealth’s southern region president, said in the statement that Kapisha “appears to have been living and working here legally.”“We take great care in making sure everyone who comes to work for us is legally authorized to do so,” Crewse said in the statement. “Nevertheless, the enforcement surge by immigration authorities has many of our care team members on edge.”Brennan, of the Maine State Nurses Association, said many hospital employees are immigrants. The abrupt timing of Kapisha’s arrest left them anxious, she said.“We have some nurses that have vacations and travel coming up,” Brennan said. “Now they’re worried about what’s going to happen to them when they go to the airport.”Ariela Lopez can be reached at ariela.lopez@globe.com. Follow her on X @ariela__lopez.