A U.S. federal court ordered the Trump administration to return a migrant sent to Africa without their consent to U.S. territory. This ruling shakes up the deportation policy to third countries promoted from Washington.
The federal judge Regina M. Rodríguez, of the United States District Court for Colorado, issued an order on September 18 requiring the return of the Honduran Bryan Omar Sánchez from the Central African Republic, where he was transferred on July 29 despite having a pending asylum application and protection under the Convention Against Torture.
"This court and many other courts across the country have determined that ICE's policies of expelling individuals to third countries violate the constitutional right to due process when applicants are not provided notice and the opportunity to contest their expulsion before being transferred to a third country," the judge wrote in her ruling.
Este fallo judicial es parte de una serie de disputas legales en torno a las deportaciones a terceros países. Sigue todos los detalles sobre las políticas migratorias de la administración Trump y sus implicaciones en nuestra sección de
Sánchez had been in Colorado for a decade, where he worked as a gardener, truck driver, and operator of a small pressure washing business. He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in May 2026 and subsequently transferred to detention centers in Alvarado, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, before being put on a flight to Africa.
He realized what his destination was when he asked an official on board the plane. "Africa? No, I can't go to Africa," Sánchez told him. After almost 22 hours of flight, he landed in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, without having signed any consent.
The judge not only ordered his return but also stipulated that upon arriving in Colorado, he should be "immediately released," without conditions such as GPS monitoring or periodic check-ins, and that he cannot be detained again unless it is demonstrated before an impartial judge, with clear evidence, that he poses a flight risk or a danger to the community.
The individual ruling on Sánchez comes days after the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous 55-page decision declaring the policy of the Department of Homeland Security illegal, which allowed for the deportation of migrants to third countries without prior notification or the opportunity to challenge the destination.
"The right of a person to contest their expulsion to a country based on a fear of persecution in that country means little if they do not receive prior notice of the intended destination for their expulsion and a meaningful opportunity to challenge that destination," noted Circuit Judge Seth Aframe in that ruling.
The policy of deporting individuals to third countries began on March 15, 2025, when dozens of Venezuelans were sent to the Salvadoran megaprison CECOT. Since then, Washington has signed agreements with at least 35 nations, including over a dozen African countries, to accept migrants who are not citizens of those territories.
Cubans have also been sent to countries in Africa
The first deportation flight to Liberia, in August 2026, included Cuban citizens among the 20 deported immigrants. Four of them refused to disembark and were transferred to Equatorial Guinea, where they were held in a hotel in Malabo without documents or legal assistance.
Other Cubans deported to third countries reported harsh conditions from the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea.
Savi Arvey, Director of Policy at Human Rights First, described these expulsions as part of "the broader efforts of the Trump administration to undermine the global protection system and make countries around the world complicit in its campaign of mass deportations, which openly disregards due process and separates families."
It is expected that the Trump administration will appeal the First Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court, which had already temporarily authorized the continuation of these deportations while the litigation was ongoing.
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