Afghanistan

'They Kept Us Like Animals': Afghan Woman Deported to Africa By Trump Speaks Out

Farzana’s fiancé was a U.S. partner in Afghanistan. She was loaded on a plane full of men and sent to another country with no papers or job prospects.

Beth Bailey | 9.17.2026 6:28 PM

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(Illustration: Adani Samat/Midjourney/Encyclopedia Britannica)

On August 28, lawyers for a 32-year-old Afghan woman filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the U.S. government from deporting her. The same day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) forced her on a plane to the Central African Republic, with around 40–50 men, and dumped her in the African nation with no identity papers or documents.

Farzana is the fiancée of a man who had applied for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), given to people who assisted the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and now face reprisals from the new Taliban-led government. Both of them entered the U.S. through the southern border in May 2024, filing for asylum with the former President Joe Biden-era CBP One app, and were detained.

Farzana says that she spent "awful" years in ICE detention, explaining that "they kept us like animal[s]." She reports being treated rudely by officers, and says that none of her complaints were taken seriously.

As a last-ditch effort to get herself released from the facility, Farzana filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to challenge the legality of her continued detention. Some Afghans have found freedom after their legal teams filed a writ of habeas corpus, but Farzana's federal defender had no success in the Louisiana legal system.

The day after the government filed a response opposing Farzana's habeas petition, her counsel filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order, likely as an attempt to secure her release or bar her removal, according to the online court docket. That same day, Farzana was flown to the Central African Republic. Three days later, the government submitted their order........

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