A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to return a Colombian woman it had deported to the Democratic Republic of Congo, ruling that the removal was likely illegal because the Congolese government had already refused to accept her. The deportation, carried out despite a formal denial from Congo’s immigration authorities, left Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata confined to a locked hotel in Kinshasa with worsening medical conditions and no access to adequate care.
Zapata, 55, entered the United States from Mexico in August 2024 and was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. A judge subsequently found that she could not be returned to Colombia because she faced a credible threat of torture there — her former partner, who had ties to the national police, had beaten her, broken her teeth, stabbed her twice, raped her, and threatened to kill her, according to court documents. The U.S. government then sought to send her to half a dozen other countries; each refused.
Congo’s refusal came on April 14, when it notified ICE in writing that it could not take Zapata because it could not manage her diabetes and thyroid condition. Despite that notification, she was put on a plane and sent to the country within days, court records show. Since her arrival, she has lived behind locked gates in a hotel, rarely allowed outside, and only under supervision, her lawyer, Lauren O’Neal, said.
Black spots have spread across Zapata’s back and foot; her skin has begun to peel, and her nails have blackened. She also suffers from depression, anxiety, and insomnia. “She’s not doing well and does worry that she’s going to die,” O’Neal said. “She was close to signing to agree to go back to Colombia” — the country where she would face torture — “because at least dying there would involve some time where she didn’t feel so much physical pain.”
The case has drawn the attention of Rep. Rob Menendez, who compared it to that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration sent to a prison in El Salvador before the U.S. Supreme Court ordered his return. Menendez said he suspects the Zapata deportation is not an isolated incident, but part of a larger pattern of removals carried out without regard for due process. “We have to make the assumption that they are small reflections of what is happening more broadly,” he said. “These are reflective of this administration having zero concern for due process, zero concern for people’s legal rights, trampling all over our legal system, trampling all over individual rights and pushing the bounds and limits in ways we would have never even imagined.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Zapata is among thousands of immigrants whom the administration has ordered deported to third countries with which they have no ties — a practice that has grown as the White House presses for more expulsions. Advocacy groups say more than 15,000 asylum-seekers have had their claims canceled, though only a fraction of those removals have been executed. The U.S. has signed deportation agreements with Ecuador, Honduras, Uganda, Cameroon, and Congo, but few details about their terms have been made public.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his ruling that the deportation “was likely illegal” and noted that Zapata “has been sent to a country that refused to accept her because they cannot provide sufficient medical care. As a result, she faces a daily risk of medical complications, up to and including death.” He ordered the federal government to bring her back “as quickly as possible” and to submit a status report by 5 p.m. Friday, with updates every 72 hours thereafter.
Menendez said the ruling brought “at least some level of justice for what’s been a horrendous broken process for Adriana and her family.” But he cautioned that enforcement of the order is not guaranteed. “We still have to make sure the administration complies,” he said. “It should have never had to happen. If this is happening, what else is happening that we don’t even know about?”