A Congolese asylum seeker who was allowed to remain in the United States is in “grave danger” after ICE secretly flew her to an unknown African country, while the woman’s husband – a widely feared local politician who allegedly witnessed her father being shot to death – continues to hunt her across continents. independent.
In addition to fearing for her own safety, “Jane Doe,” as mentioned in the legal filing, “wanted the safety of her children, whose whereabouts she did not know because their father, her husband, was trying to kill them, so they were in hiding, even from her,” an emergency motion filed Monday in Louisiana by Jane Doe’s attorneys said. “She wanted the safety of her brother, who was kidnapped by a drug cartel in Mexico and she hasn’t seen him since.”
The motion says that at the age of 14, “Jane Doe” – a devout Christian and former hairdresser in the Democratic Republic of Congo – was forced to become the African politician’s sixth wife in order to pay off family debts. Over the next decade, Doe was physically and sexually abused by her husband and his two sons, giving birth to four children while being “held like a hostage,” according to the motion, which calls for Doe’s immediate return to the United States.
In late 2024, Doe successfully escaped to his parents’ home, and the motion continued. But Doe’s politician husband soon found her and brutally abused her and her brother, ordering his bodyguards to execute her father in front of her and burning down her home, the motion said. When Doe went to police, they said her only option was to leave the country because “her abuser was too powerful … and they could not protect her,” the motion states.
“Ms Doe hid and fled [Democratic Republic of Congo] With the help of her brother and his employer, they secretly obtained travel documents and tickets to Brazil. “Doe’s abuser continued to track her abroad. Less than an hour after arriving in Brazil, Doe received a WhatsApp message from her abuser stating that he knew she was in Brazil and had “eyes everywhere.” He threatened to kill her.”
“Jane Doe’s” family, friends and attorneys say they don’t know where she is after being deported, and ICE won’t tell them, raising concerns she will be sent to an African country where her life could be in danger (Getty Images)
Out of fear, Doe traveled through 12 different countries and even braved the notorious Darién Gap on foot to reach the United States, “where she believed human rights were respected,” the motion explains. Doe allegedly arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border on January 2, 2025, and immediately requested asylum. While her case was pending, she was sent to Ridgewood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, and last June she was granted permission to remain in the United States under a “withholding of removal” decision that barred her from being deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
However, everything changed on February 15, 2026, when ICE decided to send her elsewhere.
DOE attorneys say authorities never contacted them about customers’ sudden eviction and “don’t even know where” [ICE] disappeared [her] into the dark night yesterday. ” Doe was put on deportation flights to Senegal, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana and Nigeria,” the testimony said, without providing any further information, adding that “Ms. Doe” Jane Doe had no connections, resources, money or a way to contact anyone in the world.
The motion states that Jane Doe’s “unlawful deportation means her life is in grave danger.”
Doe was “an extraordinary woman,” according to a companion affidavit filed by one of her attorneys.
“She has experienced extensive trauma, yet despite this, she smiled during a video call with me and told me how she learned to make bracelets while in ICE custody,” it said. “She read the Bible and led Bible studies with other women in detention facilities. She found a way to continue to have hope… She hoped for a future education to study medicine, become a nurse, and one day run an orphanage. She wanted to see the outside of the detention facility where she lived in the United States for 13 months: January 2025 to the present.”
Jane Doe feared the “husband” she was forced to marry to pay off her family’s debt would kill her if she was forced to return to the Democratic Republic of Congo, or had to live anywhere outside the United States, according to court documents (AFP via Getty Images)
The affidavit commends Doe for opposing the June 2025 withholding of removal order, which the motion interpreted as “akin to asylum because she demonstrates that there is a substantial likelihood that she will be persecuted on protected grounds if she is returned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and that the government there is unable or unwilling to protect her.”
Last summer, ICE instructed officials to deport immigrants from the U.S. to countries outside their home country with as little as six hours’ notice, or no notice at all.
The memo from ICE acting director Todd Lyons follows a Supreme Court ruling that opened the door for ICE to send deportees to countries without citizenship, family or any other ties.
Since then, ICE has spent more than $40 million and fought several legal battles over deportations to distant countries with which the deportees have no connection, including several African countries: Swaziland, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda and South Sudan, among others.
In a June 2025 letter to authorities submitted as court evidence, another attorney representing Doe wrote that she was told that ICE was considering Canada and Spain as third countries from which she could be deported. However, the letter stated that her husband had family in both locations and could easily find her there. Guatemala, a third possibility raised by ICE, was equally dangerous for Doe, who also doesn’t speak Spanish, according to a follow-up letter.
Immigration authorities nonetheless denied Doe the right to conduct a reasonable fear interview regarding any potential third country, which Monday’s motion called an “extraordinary and unlawful measure.”
“This is untenable under our constitution,” the motion said.
According to court documents, Jane Doe was deported by ICE in the middle of the night without giving her lawyers advance warning (AFP via Getty Images)
Throughout, ICE refused any communication with Doe’s attorneys for nearly nine months, according to the motion.
“If anything, the defendant has only [Doe]”: a high school graduate with no legal training, a native French speaker, and limited knowledge of English,” it maintained. “…This did not provide Ms. Doe with an opportunity for meaningful notice or response.” By excluding counsel and denying access to her counsel, the Defendants committed an abhorrent violation of Ms. Doe’s rights. “
At 11 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, a family member notified Doe’s legal team that she was told “it was being ‘moved,'” according to the motion. “She reportedly had no information and did not know whether the ‘relocation’ was to another facility or to a third country.”
By 10 a.m. Sunday, Doe had disappeared from ICE’s online detainee locator, according to the motion. Doe’s attorneys allegedly made at least 20 calls to eight different ICE officials, field offices and detention facilities, but went unanswered.
Finally, around 1 p.m., an ICE official picked up the phone and said Doe had left the U.S. on a 4 a.m. flight taking deportees to five African countries but “could not determine which … was her destination,” the motion states. The officer referred attorneys to two top executives, who also never responded to their inquiries, according to the motion.
Doe’s attorneys argued that the U.S. government violated her Fifth Amendment due process rights, as well as a provision of federal law that prohibits “arbitrary or capricious” behavior by government agencies.
They asked U.S. officials to facilitate Doe’s “safe and sound” return to the United States, release her once she enters the country, and reimburse her for any expenses she incurred.
Doe’s attorney declined to comment on the record. An ICE spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Alex Woodward reports
