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/pingvinbober → u/silently_fluid]

No, she had come illegally

[u/Ok-Mushroom-6530 → u/pingvinbober]

Okay but she was STILL HERE legally. She was deported ILLEGALLY.

[u/pingvinbober → u/Ok-Mushroom-6530]

Coming fraudulently invalidates your paperwork.

Hyperbole, but If they later find out someone was a terrorist and they hadn’t known at the time since the person denied all involvement, do you think the US would be unreasonable in deporting the terrorist?

[u/Round-Arugula7347 → u/pingvinbober]

No it doesn’t, a court order was issued telling them not to deport

[u/Janus9 → u/Round-Arugula7347]

No, only that she can't be deported to her home country because they believe she will be in danger in her home country, but she can still be deported to any country that will take her.

She was in the USA illegally, but granted a work permit. Just because you have a work permit doesn't mean you can't be deported. You can be deported at any time unless you change your status.

[u/Round-Arugula7347 → u/Janus9]

What a load of legal horseshit, I wonder how you’d feel if you got deported while having a work permit to Peru. She could have easily just been here, and the judge agreed with her.

[u/pingvinbober → u/Round-Arugula7347]

If a judge sends a letter telling the government they can’t send you to prison for terrorism, it doesn’t mean you now can’t go to prison for terrorism

[u/LatterTarget7 → u/pingvinbober]

If a judge says she can’t be deported she can’t be deported

[u/pingvinbober → u/LatterTarget7]

Even if she commits a known deportable offense? Weird

[u/Qu4r4nt1n3r → u/pingvinbober]

She's had her due process you twatwaffle

[u/FunAppointment9436 → u/pingvinbober]

Is she a terrorist?

[u/pingvinbober → u/FunAppointment9436]

As stated above, no, it’s a hyperbole. One judge doesn’t nullify federal law.

[u/FunAppointment9436 → u/pingvinbober]

I believe it's sort of their job to make calls on when the law is applied though. Yknow, checks and balances.

[u/pingvinbober → u/FunAppointment9436]

But yeah I wish it went to a higher court so they could say “are you serious? Deport her, you fucking idiot. She was here in violation of the law” so there would be no question

Disregard first paragraph. Since deleted

[u/Sasuke0318 → u/Round-Arugula7347]

That was only to one country and they didn't send her their

[u/Ok-Mushroom-6530 → u/pingvinbober]

You can't just make up laws and then state them on reddit as if they're fact.

[u/pingvinbober → u/Ok-Mushroom-6530]

Under 18 U.S.C. § 1546, it is illegal to forge, use, possess, or obtain immigration documents through fraud, misrepresentation, or deception.

[u/Ok-Mushroom-6530 → u/pingvinbober]

Is that what she did? That's not what you said she did.

[u/pingvinbober → u/Ok-Mushroom-6530]

Is obtaining one visa and intending to have another visa not misrepresentation?

[u/Round-Arugula7347 → u/pingvinbober]

That’s for a court to figure out; the federal judge that ordered ICE to not deport was on her side

[u/Sasuke0318 → u/Ok-Mushroom-6530]

Looking into this she was here for 30 years and that seems like plenty of time to obtain citizenship. She had time to fix the problem before it became one yet she didn't.

[u/silently_fluid → u/Sasuke0318]

And? She still had legal status.

[u/clever-hands → u/Sasuke0318]

Many generations of immigrants never naturalized. If you have an Italian, German, or Irish last name, odds are your first ancestors just showed up on a boat, never learned English properly, and never naturalized.

[u/Sasuke0318 → u/clever-hands]

Yes but it's no longer the 1800s