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The Trump administration has reportedly deported dozens of LGBTQ immigrants who sought or were granted asylum for their sexuality and gender to third countries where they face danger of persecution and criminalization, a new report says.
In an investigation published this week, Reuters identified 40 cases where these LGBTQ individuals were sent to countries that either criminalize same-sex relations or have been designated by the State Department as dangerous for LGBTQ people.
All of these people were granted legal protection in the U.S. for fleeing persecution for their LGBTQ status in their countries of origin, per Reuters. However, more than half of them were ineligible for asylum because of a restrictive Biden-era transit ban on asylum seekers.
Individuals tracked in the report have been deported to countries including Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Eswatini, three countries where same-sex acts are criminalized. In Sierra Leone, same sex acts carry a punishment of up to life in prison. Other countries that have signed deportation agreements with the U.S. have seen abuses against LGBTQ people like conversion therapy and “corrective rape,” the report notes.
The Trump administration has signed third country deportation agreements with at least 35 countries, and has deported over 25,000 people this way, sending them to places that they have no affiliation with. Many governments in Africa and central and South America have signed agreements to receive such deportees, often in exchange for direct funding or other financial incentives.
Reuters noted the story of one man, identified as Abdou Latifou, who fled his home country of Togo after a mob assaulted him and threatened to kill him after he kissed a man. A U.S. immigration judge decided last year that it was too unsafe for him to return home; he recalled thinking, “From this day on, I’m entering a world where I’m free to live as myself.”
But amid its mass deportation campaign, and while knowing that Latifou was gay, the Trump administration deported him to Sierra Leone, where he was held for two weeks under police surveillance before being put on a flight to Togo. Fleeing danger yet again, he went to the Ivory Coast, where he lives in fear of being recognized.
“When an individual is no longer in ICE custody then ICE will no longer be responsible for them,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Chandler Rebel told Reuters.
The report is the latest documenting the Trump administration’s deportations of people to places where they may be endangered. Other reports this week found that the Trump administration deported a former political prisoner back to the place he was imprisoned and tortured last week. Jeffrey Jarquín, who led pro-democracy protests against the Nicaraguan government, was reportedly taken directly from the deportation flight to the capital of Managua to a notorious Nicaraguan prison.
The Trump administration is facing a lawsuit from Iranian asylum seekers who say that U.S. officials secretly shared sensitive information, including LGBTQ status, about them with the Iranian government — as it’s tried to deport them into a country where they may face persecution.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians in the U.S., and has deported hundreds of immigrants back to Haiti, which has experienced a surge of violence and hunger.
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