Nika, a 32-year-old Iranian woman who fled Iran after protesting the regime and losing friends in the government's crackdown, had been granted 'withholding of removal' by a US immigration judge barring her return to Iran. She was released from ICE custody on May 28, 2026, but was re-arrested days later during what officers described as a routine check-in in California. She was handcuffed, shackled, and placed on a deportation flight with roughly two dozen other migrants bound for the Central African Republic, a country she said she had never heard of or visited. Central African Republic is one of at least nine African nations that have entered agreements with the Trump administration to accept third-country deportees as part of a broader crackdown that has sent thousands of people to countries other than their own. Since arriving in Bangui, Nika has largely stayed indoors out of fear, been stopped by local police demanding bribes, and was hospitalized after contracting malaria. Her immigration lawyer is now filing a federal lawsuit seeking to bring her back to the US and reopen her asylum claim.