Federal Judge Allows ICE Deportation of Asylum-Denied Migrant to Third Country

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport 37-year-old Jose Yugar-Cruz to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yugar-Cruz, detained in Iowa, had received a withholding of removal order in January 2025 after being denied asylum.

The order prevented his return to his home country due to likely torture or persecution, but it allows for deportation to a third country. Yugar-Cruz arrived at the Arizona-Mexico border nearly two years ago in July heat and turned himself into ICE custody, requesting asylum. After denial, he joined about 4,000 migrants granted similar court orders last year, as immigration court data shows.

Judges found it more likely than not that these migrants would face torture or persecution if returned home. Despite the withholding order, Yugar-Cruz remained detained during a yearlong legal battle. A federal court earlier this year ruled his 17-month detention unlawful, leading to a three-month release.

ICE detained him again in April after the DRC agreed to accept him. "I feel truly, truly devastated by what is happening to me," Yugar-Cruz said in a joint interview with CBS News and The Minneapolis Star Tribune, speaking in Spanish. "It is a country I don't know, I have no family there, I don't speak their language — as far as I understand I think it's French.

The withholding of removal order does not provide a pathway to legal residence in the United States but permits third-country deportations. CBS News reported that under previous administrations, such deportations were rare due to difficulties in securing agreements.

The Trump administration began a coordinated push last February to sign deals with countries for third-country deportees and to arrest those with withholding orders.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated during a Cabinet meeting after President Trump's first 100 days back in office: "We are working with other countries to say, 'We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries. " Deportees with and without criminal records have been sent to countries including Ghana, Cameroon, South Sudan, and El Salvador.

U.S. Judges' rulings affirming risks of torture or persecution there. The DRC, one of 28 countries accepting third-country deportees, provided diplomatic assurances that those sent there would not face persecution or torture, according to ICE via court records. On April 17, a group of 15 South American deportees arrived in the DRC, per a government announcement written in French.

The announcement stated the arrangement is strictly transitory, temporary, and limited in time. S. troops, to the DRC, as The New York Times reported.

Yugar-Cruz, who fled South America, was originally on the manifest for the mid-April deportation flight to the DRC, but his federal court case delayed it. Since the start of 2025, ICE unsuccessfully tried to remove Yugar-Cruz to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, and Canada, court records show.

His attorney, Alison Griffith, said her team requested ICE send him to a Spanish-speaking country closer to home, but ICE refused.

"I was starting to live in freedom, but they detained me again," Yugar-Cruz said. "I lost my mother while detained. I can't help my children. I'm here detained. " ICE agents have not given him a departure date.

The Department of Homeland Security deported about 15,000 people to third countries between January 20 and December 31, 2025, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Of those, 13,000 went to Mexico. DHS stated in early December it had deported more than 605,000 people since President Trump returned to office.

In June 2025, the Supreme Court lifted a stay on removals in a class-action lawsuit over third-country practices. A district court ruled in February this year that DHS's practices were unlawful, but the ruling was stayed pending appeal. The judge in Yugar-Cruz's case cited the Supreme Court's ruling in denying his motion, describing it as all but fatal to his claim.

"I still have faith that maybe some miracle could happen in my case and that they would give me my freedom again," Yugar-Cruz said. "I am grateful to all those people who helped me," he added, referring to Iowa-based advocates who rallied around him during his release months. He said they filled the empty space left by his mother's death.