DAKAR, Senegal (AP) 鈥� The Trump administration has deported 15 Latin Americans to the Democratic Republic of Congo, sending them to an unfamiliar country thousands of miles from home 鈥� many despite U.S. court orders protecting them from deportation to their homelands.
The Associated Press spoke on the phone with one of them, a 29-year-old Colombian woman, about her experience. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Here are takeaways from AP’s story.
She was deported despite court protections
All the deportees had to their home countries, according to U.S. attorney Alma David, one of their lawyers. The Colombian woman was granted protection under the U.N. Convention Against Torture in May 2025, after a federal judge ruled she could not safely be returned to Colombia, where she had faced threats from armed groups and abuse by a former partner in government.
She was nonetheless detained at a routine U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in earlier this year and told a third country had been found for her. Less than three weeks later, she was on a plane 鈥� hands and feet restrained during a nearly 24-hour charter flight. She learned she was going to Congo the day before departure.
A recent U.S. court ruling by deporting a fellow Colombian to Congo. What that means for the others remains unclear.
Congo is one of at least eight African nations taking third-country deportees
The Trump administration has struck who are not their own nationals 鈥� people whose home countries won鈥檛 take them back or who have court protections preventing their return. Legal experts say the arrangements function as an effective loophole in U.S. immigration law.
The terms of Congo鈥檚 deal are unclear. Unlike other participating countries, which have received millions of dollars, Congolese President F茅lix Tshisekedi has called it an 鈥渁ct of goodwill,鈥� with no financial compensation. The deal comes as Washington has over its support for the in eastern Congo 鈥� a dynamic analysts say may help explain Kinshasa鈥檚 cooperation.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the Colombian woman鈥檚 case but has asserted the agreements 鈥渆nsure due process under the U.S. Constitution.鈥� The Trump administration says they are needed to 鈥渞emove criminal illegal aliens.鈥�
A UN-affiliated body controls much of her daily life
The International Organization for Migration, a U.N.-affiliated body, plays a central role in managing the deportees鈥� lives in Kinshasa. They stay in bungalows at a hotel near the airport, with costs covered by Congo鈥檚 government, according to the IOM. The gates are locked and security does not let them leave alone, the Colombian woman said.
Deportees may go out roughly once a week, accompanied by IOM staff, with about 30 minutes to shop or withdraw money. 鈥淭hey choose where we go and what we buy,鈥� the woman said.
The IOM has also presented deportees with their options: return to their home countries 鈥� where many face the persecution they fled 鈥� with IOM assistance, or remain in Congo with no support. Her attorney, Alma David, called them 鈥渋mpossible choices,鈥� saying the deportations violated due process rights, U.S. immigration law, and international treaty obligations.
Her legal status in Congo is precarious
The deportees arrived on three-month Congolese visas. What happens when those expire is unclear. They have been told they can apply for asylum in Congo 鈥� an option none have taken.
The woman says she doesn鈥檛 feel safe there. The food has made several of them sick. French and Lingala are as foreign as the surroundings. She spends most of her time in her room, making late-night calls to her 10-year-old daughter back in Colombia.
Congolese human rights groups have called the arrangement a violation of international refugee law. The Congo-based Institute for Human Rights Research described it as 鈥渁rbitrary detention by proxy for the United States.鈥�
The woman, who managed a dessert shop in Colombia before fleeing, says she committed no crime, and just fled to the United States for safety. Instead she is stranded in a country she had never heard of, with no timeline and no plan.
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