DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — 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 — 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.
All the deportees had received legal orders from U.S. judges shielding them from removal 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 — hands and feet restrained during a nearly 24-hour charter flight. She learned she was going to Congo the day before departure.
