She fled to the United States to escape mutilation and a judge ruled she must stay, but ICE sent her back to hell

To meet Donald Trump’s immigration goals, the United States has been using “third-country deportations” to remove migrants when they can’t be sent back home. However, this has left many vulnerable individuals stranded in dangerous or unfamiliar territory. This includes a 28-year-old woman, who fled Togo to escape the threat of genital mutilation.

After hearing her case, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that it was unsafe for her to return home and blocked her deportation to her home country. So ICE placed her on a military cargo plane in Louisiana and sent her to Ghana, which was under no such obligation to protect her.

Per the Washington Post, after spending two weeks in detention near Accra, she and five others were dropped off by armed guards at the Togo border, forcing her into hiding in the very place she had risked her life to leave. This isn’t an isolated incident. Over the past year, the Trump administration has sent hundreds of people to countries where they have no established ties, often circumventing the legal protections granted to them by U.S. immigration judges.

So even with a valid case for asylum, she was sent home

The woman, who stayed anonymous for fear of retribution, began her journey to the U.S. in 2024 when she fled Togo to escape genital cutting, a practice she had seen harm her mother and cousins. Her own fear intensified after a cousin died following a forced procedure in January 2024. 

She wrote in her asylum declaration that she made it clear to her family that she would not allow them to expose her life to this practice. Despite Togo outlawing the custom in 1998, it remains prevalent in her home region. When she sought help from local police, she was reportedly told to be a good African woman and respect the tradition.

After enduring captivity and abuse, she reached the U.S. border in January 2025 and was held at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona for eight months while her case was heard. A judge granted her a withholding of removal order, an asylum officer found her to have a legitimate case, and a judge ruled that she could not go home. 

Unfortunately, she had come through Mexico without petitioning them for refuge, which broke the Biden era “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule. Thus, she was eventually transferred to Louisiana and flown to Ghana. 

She told the Washington Post in a tearful conversation that she is just trying to survive. “I know God is with me but I’m tired,” she said. “I’m a human being. I have to live, like everybody.”

The legal landscape surrounding these deportations is complex and often opaque. According to CBS News, the Trump administration’s efforts have stalled thousands of asylum cases and pressured many migrants into abandoning their claims entirely. 

Data shows that since Trump returned to office, approximately 17,500 people have been deported to third countries. This strategy relies on asylum cooperative agreements that allow the U.S. to reroute asylum-seekers to nations that have agreed to adjudicate their claims outside of American soil.

Victoria Neilson, a supervising attorney at the National Immigration Project, brought up a common concern held by immigration attorneys. “The third countries people are being removed to are often very dangerous countries themselves that don’t have a functioning asylum system,” she said. “There’s a lot of reasons for people to be afraid and I guess choose the devil you know over the one you know nothing about.”

The psychological toll on detainees is immense. Many, like Willian Yacelga Benalcazar, who was deported to Ecuador despite fearing for his safety, find the detention conditions unbearable. Yacelga, who was detained for five months, described fighting for food and drinking water he believed was contaminated. 

“I believe we abandoned the asylum case because the lawyer told me I could be in detention for three, four additional months. I was already sick in there. I couldn’t take it anymore,” he told CBS News.

While the White House defends these deportations as a necessary tool to fulfill campaign promises, advocates argue that the practice violates international refugee law. Columbia Law School professor Elora Mukherjee has stated that states cannot avoid liability by outsourcing refugee protections. 

Meanwhile, the woman from Togo remains in hiding, still reeling from the reversal of her hard-won legal protections. She reflected on her journey with deep frustration, noting that she had a chance to save her life before the system intervened. “I traveled from here to the U.S. to save my life,” she said. “I had a chance … but all these foolish people took my dreams.”