Takeaways from AP's interview with Colombian woman deported to Congo by US

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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.

A recent U.S. court ruling found the government likely broke the law by deporting a fellow Colombian to Congo. What that means for the others remains unclear.

The Trump administration has struck deals with at least eight African countries to accept deportees who are not their own nationals — people whose home countries won’t 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’s deal are unclear. Unlike other participating countries, which have received millions of dollars, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has called it an “act of goodwill,” with no financial compensation. The deal comes as Washington has pressured neighboring Rwanda over its support for the M23 rebel group in eastern Congo — a dynamic analysts say may help explain Kinshasa’s cooperation.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the Colombian woman’s case but has asserted the agreements “ensure due process under the U.S. Constitution.” The Trump administration says they are needed to “remove criminal illegal aliens.”

The International Organization for Migration, a U.N.-affiliated body, plays a central role in managing the deportees’ lives in Kinshasa. They stay in bungalows at a hotel near the airport, with costs covered by Congo’s 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. “They choose where we go and what we buy,” the woman said.

The IOM has also presented deportees with their options: return to their home countries — where many face the persecution they fled — with IOM assistance, or remain in Congo with no support. Her attorney, Alma David, called them “impossible choices,” saying the deportations violated due process rights, U.S. immigration law, and international treaty obligations.

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 — an option none have taken.

The woman says she doesn’t 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 “arbitrary detention by proxy for the United States.”

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.