Human Impact Project

Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old nurse who spent more than 30 years in the U.S. caring for Covid-19 patients and disabled adults, was detained by ICE agents during a routine check-in in Baltimore on July 1, 2025, with her son Mohamed present. Kuyateh had fled civil war in Sierra Leone as a child and had been granted a withholding of removal protecting her from being sent back there, saying she had no criminal record: "I did not commit any crime; I always abided by the law." After four months in ICE custody, she was deported to Ghana as part of a third-country deportation, a country with which she had no ties. Video obtained by news outlets shows Ghanaian officials dragging her by her hair, shoeless and screaming, through a hotel in Accra and forcing her onward to Sierra Leone, the country a U.S. judge had ruled would endanger her life. She is now living in hiding in an undisclosed location in Africa.

Aylin, a 28-year-old gay woman from Turkey who fled after being threatened by a religious group and a family member, had been granted withholding of removal by a US judge because returning to Turkey would endanger her due to her sexuality, though her underlying asylum application had been denied. After spending 18 months in US immigration detention, she says she was handcuffed and shackled and put on a flight she only learned mid-flight was headed to the Central African Republic, a country she had never heard of. She spent weeks confined to an apartment in Bangui, too afraid to go outside, before ultimately returning to Turkey, telling her family she had 'changed her sexual orientation' and saying she hopes to eventually reach another country. The Department of Homeland Security told CNN that third-country deportation agreements are lawful and that a protection order barring removal to one's home country does not bar deportation elsewhere; CNN reported she is one of several deportees sent to third countries despite court protection orders, and the AP found eight of nine deportees on one January flight had similar orders, with at least 35 third-country deportation deals signed by US immigration authorities.

S, a Nigerian Christian, came to the United States in 2001 and applied for asylum based on her fear of religious persecution. A U.S. immigration judge found she would be persecuted if returned to Nigeria and granted her withholding of removal. She is the primary breadwinner for her four U.S. citizen children and her husband, who is disabled. At a routine ICE check-in in Los Angeles in July 2026, she was arrested, detained, and summarily deported to Ghana, separating her from her family and the country she called home for 25 years. Within 24 hours of her arrival, Ghanaian authorities refouled her to Nigeria, where she fears the persecution she fled.

A Pakistani national was held in an ICE facility in Louisiana for approximately 21 months without removal. ICE attempted to transfer him to the UAE, which declined, and sought responses from Saudi Arabia, China, Kosovo, and Moldavia without success. A federal court ordered his immediate release, ruling the prolonged detention unconstitutional under Zadvydas v. Davis because removal was not likely in the foreseeable future.

Milana, a Russian immigrant and trafficking survivor, was detained at ICE's Oklahoma City office during a routine immigration check-in in September 2025. She arrived in the U.S. on a fiancé visa in the early 2000s, escaped an abusive first marriage involving human trafficking, and received a removal order in 2003 that was later converted to an order of supervision requiring routine check-ins. For over 20 years, she complied with these check-ins while building a life in the U.S., raising her U.S. citizen daughter, working consistently, and marrying Roger Swope, a U.S. Army veteran. On the day of her detention, ICE suddenly acted on the dormant removal order. Her attorney, Elissa Stiles, filed multiple legal challenges including habeas corpus petitions and argued Milana qualifies for a trafficking victim visa, but all were denied. A federal judge ruled on June 29, 2026, that Milana had not cooperated with Russian consulate authorities. ICE initially attempted to deport her to Russia despite the active war and closed airspace, then considered third-country removal options. Roger has spent over $20,000 on legal efforts. Since detention, Milana has been moved multiple times between facilities in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, shackled during transfers. Her attorney states the only remaining option is to appeal to ICE for humanitarian intervention, as Milana fears for her life if deported to Russia during the ongoing war.

Marta and 14 other migrants and asylum seekers from Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador were deported by the U.S. to the Democratic Republic of Congo under a third-country agreement. Marta has described solitary confinement and a lack of due process, alongside ongoing emotional strain, power cuts, lack of clean water, and frequent illness. Another deportee, Carlos Rodelo, had been granted protection under the UN Convention Against Torture but was still detained and deported. A human rights researcher in the DRC has said the arrangement lacks a legal basis under international refugee protections.

Eighteen Venezuelan men expelled by the US to El Salvador's Cecot prison in March 2025 filed a petition before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights alleging torture, sexual assault, and medical neglect. The men, who were released and returned to Venezuela in July, detail a pattern of abuse including beatings, humiliation, and being held in windowless cells with constant bright lights. Human rights groups filed the petition on their behalf seeking international accountability for violations.

Approximately a dozen asylum seekers were deported by the U.S. to Sierra Leone in June 2026, marking the second deportation flight to the country. Despite prior U.S. court orders protecting them from deportation to their home countries due to credible fears of persecution, the deportees now face being returned to those countries where they risk harm. According to attorney Erica Reilly, who represents one of the migrants, this follows nine West African migrants who arrived in Sierra Leone the previous month. The Trump administration has struck third-country deportation deals with at least nine African nations as well as multiple Latin American and Caribbean countries. Legal advocates argue the policy creates a loophole that indirectly forces asylum seekers back to dangerous conditions with limited U.S. oversight or legal recourse.

Tuan Phan, a 44-year-old Vietnamese national, was deported to South Sudan in July 2025 by the Trump administration under a third-country deportation program. Phan had immigrated to the U.S. as a child, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2000 for a gang-related killing, and was taken into ICE custody upon completing his sentence in March 2025. A federal judge initially blocked his deportation, but the Supreme Court later approved it. Phan was held in a gated, armed compound in Juba for over a year alongside seven other men with criminal convictions. He was repatriated to Vietnam on June 19, 2026, becoming the second person from the group to be returned to his home country.

A noncitizen subject to an order of supervision under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b) since 2013 was informed by an ICE officer at a routine check-in on June 16, 2026, that ICE planned to remove him to a third country and instructed him to return with a plane ticket for El Salvador, Guatemala, or Mexico, with threats of deportation to Africa if he did not cooperate. An Immigration Judge had previously granted him withholding of removal in 2022, finding he would likely face persecution in Honduras based on his sexual orientation. The court is examining whether he received proper notice and due process protections regarding the threatened removal and whether a bond hearing is required before any detention.

Adriana Quiroz Zapata, a 53-year-old Colombian national and torture survivor with New Jersey ties, was detained by ICE in August 2024 after re-entering the United States despite a prior removal order. In February 2025, she passed a Reasonable Fear Interview and received withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Despite these protections, ICE deported her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on April 16, 2026—a country where she has no ties and where she cannot receive adequate medical care for her chronic conditions. On May 14, 2026, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return her, ruling the deportation likely illegal. However, on June 15, 2026, the judge reversed that order after the administration produced evidence claiming the DRC had agreed to accept her, leaving Zapata in the DRC.

A flight carrying at least two dozen migrants deported from the United States, including an Iranian woman who fears persecution in her home country, landed in the Central African Republic. The country is one of at least nine African nations that have entered agreements with the Trump administration to accept third-country deportees. The arrangements are part of a broader U.S. crackdown under which the administration has deported thousands of people to countries other than their own.

A Salvadoran citizen who received withholding of removal in 2024 and was released on supervision was detained without warning on June 12, 2026, when he reported to the Baltimore ICE Field Office as directed. ICE revoked his release and prepared removal documents intending to deport him to Mexico without following required procedural safeguards or providing notice and opportunity to be heard. The court granted his habeas corpus petition, finding ICE violated due process and the Accardi doctrine by failing to follow its own regulations, and ordered his immediate release on the previous supervision conditions.

Yadi, a Cuban woman deported from the United States, shared a video of herself saying goodbye to her three children—Catherine, Jonathan, and Emily—at Cancún International Airport after a two-month visit. The children returned to Houston, Texas, while Yadi remained in Mexico, unable to re-enter the U.S. She described the separation as "the greatest pain imaginable" and expressed that "no family should endure such separation." Her case reflects a broader pattern: between January 2025 and March 2026, the U.S. deported nearly 13,000 third-country nationals to Mexico, with Cubans comprising 4,353 of those deportations, 26% of whom had no criminal records in the U.S.

A Nicaraguan national was arrested and re-detained on June 4, 2026, while attending a routine ICE check-in in Los Angeles. He had been released on supervised release in 2024 after the Immigration Court granted him withholding of removal to Nicaragua, but was arrested without prior notice explaining the basis for revocation. ICE indicated he could not be removed to Nicaragua but would be sent to an unspecified third country. The court issued a temporary restraining order on June 13, 2026, blocking his removal from the United States pending resolution of his habeas corpus petition challenging the legality of third-country removal.

Javier (pseudonym) left Colombia in 2023 with his wife and two children due to threats from armed groups where he worked in the medical field, and the family applied for asylum in the U.S. After he obtained a work permit, and while his wife was pregnant and the family awaited their merits hearing in immigration court, ICE detained him. He was held for three months, denied asylum, and deported to Colombia in March 2026 despite significant evidence of the dangers he faced there. While he was in Colombia, his son was born and placed in the NICU. Desperate to reunite with his wife, children, and newborn, he reentered the U.S., was detained at the border, and was quickly deported to Costa Rica in June 2026. He has yet to meet his third child and is applying for asylum in Costa Rica, hoping to reunite with his family there.

Jose Yugar-Cruz, a Bolivian citizen and torture survivor, entered the U.S. through Arizona in summer 2024 and was immediately detained by border officials. Although his asylum application was denied, a federal judge granted him withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture, which prevents his deportation to Bolivia. While detained, DHS attempted to send him to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, and Canada. After filing a writ of habeas corpus, he was released and began rebuilding his life in Iowa. On April 8, 2026, during what he believed was a routine ICE check-in, officers re-detained him and placed him on a manifest for deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo—a country experiencing war and an Ebola outbreak where he had no ties and was scheduled for removal on April 15. His attorney filed an emergency motion the same day; a federal judge barred DHS from removing him outside the country pending further notice, and he was released on May 29, 2026. At his next ICE check-in, over 250 supporters, including activists, clergy, and elected officials, attended to prevent further detention.

Miguel Angel Tercero Raudes, a Salvadoran national who had been living and working legally in the United States for over a decade with a 2023 Withholding of Removal court order, was detained at a routine ICE check-in on May 29, 2026. He is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of two U.S. citizen daughters. The government has indicated plans to remove him to a third country where he has no family or legal status, in apparent violation of his court-ordered withholding of removal protection.

A 23-year-old South American woman was granted protection from deportation to her home country by an immigration judge in June 2025 after fleeing persecution based on her queer identity. Despite this ruling, ICE has held her in Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana for over a year while seeking to deport her to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country where she has never been and where she would face serious risks.

José Yugar-Cruz, a 37-year-old Bolivian asylum-seeker, was granted temporary release from ICE custody on May 29, 2026, after an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo suspended deportations to that country. An immigration judge had ruled in January 2025 that Yugar-Cruz faced likely torture if returned to Bolivia and granted him withholding-of-removal relief under the Convention Against Torture, yet ICE detained him at an April 2026 check-in appointment and attempted to deport him to the DRC despite his court protection and lack of connection to that country. After being held for 17 months while ICE sought third countries willing to accept his deportation—including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, and Canada—Yugar-Cruz challenged his indefinite detention in court in December 2025. The WHO declaration of an Ebola emergency in Congo on May 17, 2026, forced suspension of deportations to that destination, resulting in his temporary release following legal challenges and community advocacy.