{"id":6349,"date":"2026-05-14T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6349"},"modified":"2026-05-14T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T23:32:07","slug":"federal-judge-orders-trump-administration-to-bring-back-a-colombian-woman-who-was-deported-to-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=6349","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge orders Trump administration to bring back a Colombian woman who was deported to Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By CLAIRE GALOFARO and TIM SULLIVAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to bring a Colombian woman back to the U.S. from Congo, after she was deported to the African nation even though it had refused to accept her because it could not care for her medical needs.<\/p>\n

Read more Congress moves to raise retirement age for Capitol Police as threats against lawmakers mount<\/a><\/p>\n

The deportation of Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata \u201cwas likely illegal,\u201d U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Zapata, 55, who has diabetes and a thyroid condition, \u201chas been sent to a country that refused to accept her because they cannot provide sufficient medical care,\u201d the ruling said. \u201cAs a result, she faces a daily risk of medical complications, up to and including death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black spots began to grow on Zapata\u2019s back and foot while she was in detention, her skin started to peel and her nails blackened, according to documents Zapata submitted in court, which were provided to the AP by her lawyer. She also suffers from depression, anxiety and insomnia.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not doing well and does worry that she\u2019s going to die,\u201d her lawyer, Lauren O\u2019Neal, said.<\/p>\n

Congo didn\u2019t want Zapata but she was sent there anyway<\/h4>\n

Zapata entered the U.S. from Mexico in August 2024 and was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.<\/p>\n

A judge found last year that she could not be deported to Colombia because she could be tortured if returned. Her former partner there had ties to the national police force, and beat her so viciously he broke her teeth, stabbed her twice, raped her and threatened to kill her, she wrote in court documents.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The government requested to send her to half a dozen other countries that all refused to accept her, according to court records. The Congolese government on April 14 notified ICE in writing that it also could not take Zapata. Within days, she was sent there anyway, records show.<\/p>\n

She was among at least 15 people who were sent to Congo, said Rep. Rob Menendez, a Democrat of New Jersey, who has been working with Zapata and her family for more than a year.<\/p>\n

Menendez likened the case to that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he be returned to the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make the assumption that they are small reflections of what is happening more broadly,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are reflective of this administration having zero concern for due process, zero concern for people\u2019s legal rights, trampling all over our legal system, trampling all over individual rights and pushing the bounds and limits in ways we would have never even imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more US agents arrest tourist after video shows a rock hurled at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal\u2019s head<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Living behind locked gates in Congo<\/h4>\n

Since being deported, Zapata has lived in a hotel in Kinshasa, Congo\u2019s capital. The hotel gates are locked, O\u2019Neal said. Zapata and other deportees are rarely allowed out, and only with supervision, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was close to signing to agree to go back to Colombia,\u201d said O\u2019Neal, adding that the possibility of being tortured there seemed to her more bearable: \u201cbecause at least dying there would involve some time where she didn\u2019t feel so much physical pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zapata is among thousands of immigrants ordered deported to countries where most had no connections.<\/p>\n

Zapata was protected from deportation to Colombia because of international agreements on torture, but immigrants awaiting rulings on their asylum claims have been more common targets in the White House push for ever more immigrant expulsions. Advocacy groups say more than 15,000 asylum-seekers have been ordered deported after having their asylum claims canceled, though only a tiny fraction of those orders have been carried out.<\/p>\n

Few details are known about the agreements to accept these deportees, though the U.S. has signed them with a range of countries, including Ecuador, Honduras, Uganda, Cameroon and Congo.<\/p>\n

Hoping for justice and Zapata\u2019s return<\/h4>\n

The judge, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, ordered the federal government to bring Zapata back as quickly as possible. He wrote that the government must update the court on the status of that effort by 5 p.m. Friday and every 72 hours after that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was at least some level of justice for what\u2019s been a horrendous broken process for Adriana and her family,\u201d Menendez said.<\/p>\n

But they aren\u2019t \u201cspiking the football,\u201d he said \u2014 they still have to make sure the administration complies with the judge\u2019s order and brings Zapata back. He worries about all the cases like hers that have been quietly carried out behind the walls of detention centers and on deportation flights that the public hasn\u2019t learned of yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should have never had to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cIf this is happening, what else is happening that we don\u2019t even know about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014-<\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct that Zapata was protected by torture laws and was not awaiting an asylum ruling.<\/p>\n

Read more Laguna Beach peninsula home atop Arch Rock aims for $32 million<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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