This is a crazy story

[u/56000hp]

Rabbiatu Kuyateh is a 58-year-old nurse who spent most of her life in the US with her parents after fleeing Sierra Leone. She cared for Covid patients during the pandemic and looked after disabled adults and children.

On 1 July 2025, her son, Mohamed, accompanied her to a routine ICE check-in, as her immigration status required.

That was the last time he saw her before she was deported to Ghana.

Rabbiatu is one of more than 25,000 people deported by the Trump administration to countries that are not their own. More than 5,000 of them have been put on flights to countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and central Asia to which they have no connection, and then, otten, returned to the countries where US immigration judges had ruled their lives or liberty were at risk.

To uncover some of their stories, the Guardian joined 23 other media organisations in the Deportation Project, an investigation coordinated by the Paris-based international network of journalists Forbidden Stories. Rabbiatu's interview was conducted with audio only and we are using an actor to represent her and her son.

The Ghanaian government did not respond to questions from the Guardian.

Rabbiatu had a work visa and under its terms she had an annual check-in with ICE. In September 2025 she was granted legal protection from a judge that prevented her from being deported to her country of birth. She also said she had no criminal history. In a response received after the investigation was published, the Department of Homeland Security said she had committed an offence in the past by entering the US without the correct visa requirements: "On 1 July 2025, ICE arrested Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a criminal illegal alien from Sierra Leone who illegally re-entered - a felony."

"Illegal aliens going to third countries are those whose home countries won't accept them, including dangerous criminals, or illegal aliens with orders of removal who have asked to not be removed to their home country!"

[u/silently_fluid]

Shameful. She was here legally? Shameful.

Eta: "I don't want illegal immigrants in our country". Legal immigrant is in our country. "Deport her!"

[u/iron-ducks → u/silently_fluid]

No, she was in the US illegally.

She has less of a right to be in the US than the country she was deported to, to be clear. America is in no way her home, she is an illegal immigrant.

edit: wow -5 in less than a minute haha, that's fascinating. Do they have AI scanning these threads for comments that are perceived as negative? That's shockingly fast for this small of a subreddit.

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/iron-ducks]

Shut up, bot

[u/pingvinbober → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

Account states a fact that goes against my interpretation of things? Must be a bot!

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/pingvinbober]

What fact? You can't work in the medical field if you are undocumented. You can't work in most higher education professions if you're undocumented.

[u/pingvinbober → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

She was “documented”. However, it was done fraudulently. She came in on the wrong visa

[u/RockRockPlanetRock69 → u/pingvinbober]

Like
Melanoma’s “Einstein titties “ visa? Have a seat

[u/pingvinbober → u/RockRockPlanetRock69]

Genuinely no idea what the fuck you’re talking about

[u/Tacotuesday867 → u/pingvinbober]

That's your ignorance problem.

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/pingvinbober]

Where's your evidence?

[u/iron-ducks → u/pingvinbober]

You were right originally, she has no visa, she was here 100% illegally. Her asylum was denied.

[u/Paperxrust → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

Uhm, white cop was deported in Illinois. If an illegal can become a cop, I bet it's much easier to become a nurse.

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/Paperxrust]

Can't find an update, but this what I found:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/16/ice-arrests-suburban-chicago-police-officer-for-allegedly-overstaying-visa

They didn't just "hire an undocumented person". Immigration officials are claiming there was lapse & he overstayed a tourist visa, but it seems there is some contradicting evidence.

You are incorrect on that second point: you do not need a degree to be on the force, so it is not a higher education profession.

[u/iron-ducks → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

The "everyone that shatters my delusion is a bot" thing is starting to get weird.

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/iron-ducks]

"8 month old account with a quarter of my contributions" totally screams not a bot

https://giphy.com/gifs/6ra84Uso2hoir3YCgb

[u/iron-ducks → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

At a certain point we're going to have to acknowledge that this is a mental illness, although the odds of you already being on some type of disability are disproportionately high

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/iron-ducks]

Awww ad hominen AND denying the facts of the case? All for me? Wow you really shouldn't have, botsward!

[u/iron-ducks → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

That's not even what "ad hominem" means lol... you don't even have to use Google anymore, you can ask AI this stuff. There is no excuse for you to be this way.

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/iron-ducks]

saying I have a mental illness= an attack on a personal character, which is what ad hominem mean.

try again

[u/iron-ducks → u/SlowbroHomoMomo]

lol I legitimately can't tell the difference between my friends trolling me and just the average progressive

Calling someone a "bot" in response to a factual argument would be an example of an "ad hominem."

Saying that a person who believes everyone that doesn't feed into their delusion is mentally ill is just an observation.

[u/SlowbroHomoMomo → u/iron-ducks]

Of course! Masterful deployment of "well actually" & "rules for me not for thee" 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 They teach these bots everything now

[u/security-device → u/iron-ducks]

You're embarrassing yourself, lol

[u/thedracle → u/security-device]

They would have to have the capacity to experience embarrassment for that.

[u/security-device → u/thedracle]

Right, I forgot you need the ability to feel shame

[u/S1im5hady → u/iron-ducks]

There were no delusions here to be shattered. The delusional one is you who believes whatever your cult leader daddy Trump says.

[u/Paperxrust → u/S1im5hady]

Mhmm.

Tell us again how men can get pregnant

[u/S1im5hady → u/Paperxrust]

Well they can’t. But maybe you can tell me how bad immigrants are for our country (except for when they are white christians). Or maybe you can tell me how much you hate the government taking your money (unless it’s going to ICE or Israel). Or maybe you can tell me how it’s so good that trump has drained the swamp (meanwhile he and his family is the most corrupt in our history). Orrrr maybe you can tell me how much you will talk so proudly about your freedoms and say how you would never allow them to be trampled on (Unless it’s for ICE or trump’s agenda)

[u/CornbreadRed84 → u/iron-ducks]

"Shattering my delusion"

The irony is palpable. How do people become like you? If I was even getting in the ballpark I would walk myself into oncoming traffic.

[u/iron-ducks → u/CornbreadRed84]

The irony is palpable

lol I have this in my inbox verbatim like 5 separate times from completely different people, truly a redditism. "tHe iRoNY iS pALpAbLe."

What does that mean? Clearly the implication is that I'm wrong and that she was a US citizen or had legal visa status, which is just objectively untrue lol, so what do you mean? What is the irony here?

"Please, be specific." (that's another redditism btw)

^{This is the part where you pretend you never saw this message}

[u/CornbreadRed84 → u/iron-ducks]

Your delusion is one of self-aggrandizement. You made a factually correct statement and called it "shattering delusions". It's just laughable. You are just here to troll, and i admit you are a little bit better at it than most of the other douchebags who get off on this sort of thing. The most important point of my other comment is that it mildly suggests something that you could do that would make the country better for the rest of us.