U.S. works to reverse one third-country deportation to Africa : NPR

The Trump administration on Friday said it has started to facilitate the return to the U.S. of an Egyptian man who was deported to Equatorial Guinea, in a rare case of the government working to reverse a third-country deportation.

A federal judge in Arizona earlier this week ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return Ahmed Soliman to the U.S. from the country in central Africa where he has no ties, and respond how it plans to do so.

The administration said it is working “collaboratively” with Soliman’s lawyers to find and contact him, and is “beginning the process to facilitate” his return, according to Friday’s filings in the case from Timothy Courchaine, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.

Soliman, who is a gay, had been able to get an order from a U.S. immigration judge to prevent him from being deported to his home country, Egypt, where he could be persecuted for his sexuality.

Instead, the Trump administration deported him earlier this year to Equatorial Guinea, which ranks as one of the least free countries in the world, according to Freedom House, a nonprofit devoted to protecting and growing democracy, and human rights across the globe.

Arizona District Court Judge John Hinderaker, an appointee of President Trump, said that DHS violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment when it removed Soliman to a third country.

“It is unrebutted that he has since been held under armed guard; threatened at gunpoint; and arrested, beaten, and held incommunicado by Equatorial Guinean authorities,” Hinderaker wrote in his Oct. 6 order.

The ruling comes even as the U.S. Supreme Court last week allowed the Trump administration to resume deportations of migrants to countries where they have no ties, at least for now, while agreeing to take the case up for full oral argument in December.

DHS told NPR in a statement this week that it would comply with lawful court orders and that Soliman would continue to receive due process.

“But the end result will be the same — he will not remain in the U.S. This administration will not ignore the rule of law,” the DHS spokesperson added.

Facilitating Soliman’s return

Dana Camilleri, one of Soliman’s lawyers, said compliance means diplomats in Equatorial Guinea must work to facilitate Soliman’s release. She is working to get a similar outcome for another client in the central African country, a gay Brazilian man.

“ We’re all just really hopeful that this could be the beginning of getting them home,” Camilleri said. “Because they’re in an awful situation, and our government put them there.”

The office of the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea did not respond to a request for comment.

Soliman has been held under armed guard at a decommissioned hotel where he has been threatened at gunpoint, arrested, beaten and been unable to communicate with his family or lawyers, according to court filings.

Soliman emigrated to the U.S. from Egypt when he was a child, grew up in Arizona and became a green card holder. He lost his immigration status after a 2023 drug possession and aggravated assault led to a prison sentence.

That’s when an immigration judge ruled he could not be sent to Egypt, where he would most likely be tortured.

The harm Soliman is alleged to have suffered in Equatorial Guinea could put the U.S. in violation of international law, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a  senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. The council advocates for a fair process for immigrants in the U.S.

“ We are signatories of the UN convention against torture, and domestic law makes it illegal to send someone to a place where they will be persecuted,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “ All of this really violates a lot of the basic principles of due process and human rights that Americans support,” and serves as “a direct rebuke to the Trump administration’s broader strategy of third country removals.”

The Trump administration has made deals with over 30 countries to deport migrants to places where they have no ties or connections as part of the president’s immigration crackdown.

Hinderaker’s order to return Soliman marks the second time a judge has forced the government to return a third-country migrant from an African nation. A Colorado judge also ordered the return of Brayan Omar Sanchez Servellon, originally from Honduras, who was sent to the Central African Republic earlier this year.