Chicago-Area Immigration Lawyers Track Third-Country Deportations Despite Court Protection Orders

The Trump administration has deported dozens of asylum seekers to third countries despite federal immigration judges issuing protection orders preventing their return to their home nations, according to immigration lawyers tracking the cases.

Among those deported is Farah, a 21-year-old gay woman from Morocco who fled her country after facing family violence due to her sexual orientation. Homosexuality remains illegal in Morocco and carries penalties of up to three years in prison, according to the country’s laws.

Farah told The Associated Press she was beaten by her family and her partner’s family when they discovered the relationship. After being kicked out of her family home, she said her family later found her in another city and attempted to kill her.

She and her partner traveled from Brazil through six countries to reach the U.S. border in early 2025, where they requested asylum. Immigration officials detained Farah for nearly a year, first in Arizona and then in Louisiana.

“It was very cold, and we only had very thin blankets,” Farah told the AP about detention conditions. She also described inadequate medical care during her detention.

While immigration authorities denied Farah’s asylum claim, a U.S. immigration judge issued a protection order in August ruling she could not be deported to Morocco because doing so would endanger her life, according to court documents reviewed by the AP. Her partner was denied both asylum and a protection order and was subsequently deported.

Three days before a scheduled hearing on her potential release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents handcuffed Farah and placed her on a flight to Cameroon, a country she had never visited and where homosexuality is also illegal, she said.

“They asked me if I wanted to stay in Cameroon, and I told them that I can’t stay in Cameroon and risk my life in a place where I would still be endangered,” Farah told the AP. Officials then flew her to Morocco.

Alma David, an immigration lawyer with the U.S.-based Novo Legal Group who has assisted deportees and verified Farah’s case, said eight deportees on the first flight to Cameroon in January had received judges’ protection orders. The AP confirmed similar cases involving women from Ghana and Congo who also reported having protection orders.

Joseph Awah Fru, a lawyer representing deportees in Cameroon’s capital of Yaounde, said the detention facility currently holds 15 deportees from various African countries who arrived on two flights, none of whom are Cameroonian nationals.

A second flight brought eight additional people on Monday, according to Fru. Three freelance journalists covering the deportations for the AP were briefly detained in Cameroon while reporting on the situation.

David characterized the third-country deportations as exploiting a legal “loophole.” The Trump administration has used these deportations to pressure migrants in the U.S. illegally to leave voluntarily, stating they could end up “in any number of third countries.”

The real number of people deported to third countries despite having legal protection from U.S. immigration judges remains unknown, according to immigration advocates tracking the cases.

Farah said she has returned to Morocco and remains in hiding. “It is hard to live and work with the fear of being tracked once again by my family,” she told the AP. “But there is nothing I can do. I have to work.”

The case highlights ongoing concerns among immigration lawyers about the administration’s deportation practices and their impact on individuals who have received court-ordered protection from removal to their home countries.