LGBTQ+ asylum seekers who fled severe persecution and sought safety in the United States are being systematically deported by the Trump administration to foreign nations where they have no personal connections, no family, and no legal familiarity, according to immigrant rights organizations and court documentation. Despite receiving legal protections barring their removal to their countries of origin, these individuals are routinely transferred under third-country deportation agreements, placing them back into environments where their lives and safety remain under immediate threat.
Many of these removals are carried out under formal agreements that the U.S. government maintains with foreign authorities. According to Third Country Deportation Watch, the Trump administration currently holds agreements with at least 35 nations across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe to accept deported non-citizens. However, advocacy groups like Immigration Equality warn that sending vulnerable sexual and gender minorities to these countries exposes them to heightened dangers, including systemic discrimination, criminalization, and violence.
One such case involves Aylin, a 28-year-old gay Turkish woman whose name was altered by news outlets to protect her from physical reprisals. Aylin fled Turkey in 2024 after receiving death threats from a religious organization and a close family member due to her sexual orientation. Although an immigration judge granted her withholding of removal—a legal status protecting her from being sent back to Turkey—her primary asylum application was rejected, leading to 18 months in U.S. immigration custody.
In July, federal authorities put her on a flight without revealing where she was heading until they were midway through the journey.
“I was handcuffed and shackled,” Aylin recalled of the flight that ultimately dropped her off in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic—a nation she had never visited or even heard of prior to her deportation. Same-sex marriage has been constitutionally banned in the Central African Republic since 2016. Left with virtually no safety network or viable options to survive in Bangui, Aylin was eventually forced to return to Turkey after telling her family her sexual orientation had changed.
Reflecting on her original hopes when arriving at the U.S. border, Aylin says, “I just hoped to be free. To live my life how I want to live, to take a breath. To have friends. A relationship. A good family. My own family. Justice.”
Her story reflects a growing list of similar removals coordinated by U.S. federal authorities:
Adwoa, a 21-year-old bisexual woman from Ghana who fled her home country after neighbors accused her family of witchcraft due to her sexuality, was granted court protection against return to Ghana. Instead, U.S. immigration officials deported her to Cameroon, where same-sex relationships carry heavy criminal penalties. Now held in a government-run facility, Adwoa described her presence in Cameroon as “a terrifying feeling.”
Michael, a gay Ghanaian man who left his homeland in 2024, received legal protection from deportation to Ghana but was transferred by U.S. authorities to Equatorial Guinea, a country where he has no social ties and where LGBTQ+ individuals lack legal protections.
Hassan, a gay man from North Africa whose asylum petition was never heard by a judge, was deported directly to Uganda—a country that enacted its punitive Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023.
Farah, a 21-year-old gay Moroccan woman, was sent to Cameroon despite obtaining a U.S. court order blocking her removal to Morocco. She eventually made her way back to Morocco, where she is currently living in hiding.
Andry Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum seeker, was among those sent to El Salvador’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). He and several other migrants have since filed legal claims against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, alleging wrongful deportation and severe abuse while in custody.
Responding to criticisms surrounding the policy of third-country removals, federal authorities maintained that they are enforcing current statutory mandates without exception.
In an official statement addressing the practice, the Department of Homeland Security stated, “We are applying the law as written. If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”
Human rights attorneys and legal advocates note that these deportations are occurring alongside a broader domestic reduction in civil protections for LGBTQ+ individuals within the United States. As third-country deportation agreements continue to expand, legal advocates warn that an increasing number of asylum seekers will be forced into perilous choices between living in hiding in third nations or returning illegally to the dangerous homelands they originally sacrificed everything to escape.
