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A Maryland family is trying to get their loved one back after she was deported from the U.S. to a country they say she had no ties to. Video that’s made international news showed her being dragged by people her family believes worked for Ghana’s government.
The videos obtained by the News4 I-Team are raising questions from her family about how people are treated after they are deported from the U.S. to countries other than their countries of origin.
As part of the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program, dozens of deportees have been sent from the U.S. to Africa since this summer, NBC News reported.
Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old mother and grandmother, moved to the D.C. area 30 years ago as she fled Sierra Leone’s civil war, said Mohamed Alghali, her son. He owns a home in Bowie with his mom, who he called his best friend.
“I felt defeated. Felt like I failed my mom,” he said.
Alghali was born in the U.S. and his family put down roots in the D.C. area. His grandparents joined them and became citizens. Kuyateh’s attorney says she was a nurse with a work permit but never became a citizen.
Alghali was required to check in every year with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
Her check-in this July was different.
“They called her to the back. They said, ‘Yeah, Rabbiatu, you have a order of removal. So, we're, you know, yeah, we're detaining you,” her son said.
“I mean, my heart just broke,” he said.
Alghali was optimistic he would see his mother again. But he wouldn’t see her face-to-face. After several days at Maryland ICE’s temporary holding area, she was moved to an ICE facility in Louisiana, where she was held for months, her attorney said.
“I don't think anyone expected her to be detained, just because nothing had changed with her circumstances,” attorney Hannah Bridges said.
Kuyateh’s attorney said Kuyateh was still in Louisiana in September when a judge granted an order saying she could not be sent back to Sierra Leone, where she said her client had been tortured.
Bridges said the U.S. immediately began exploring other countries to send her to, which the attorney tried to fight in court with requests for hearings.
“Those requests went unacknowledged,” Bridges said.
Kuyateh’s civil rights have been violated, her attorney said.
“She should have been given notice and an opportunity to seek protection from removal to a third country, and the government had multiple opportunities to do this,” Bridges said.
Earlier this month, Kuyateh was flown from the U.S. to Ghana, a country she said she had never been to.
Alghali called his mother while the I-Team was with him. She said as she was flown from the U.S. to Ghana, her wrists and ankles were shackled for the entire 10-hour flight. Some had it even worse, she said.
“There was another guy on the floor. That guy, they chained from the head. Down to the feet,” Kuyateh said. “They said if you don't cooperate with us, that's how we're going to tie you.”
Kuyateh told the I-Team she and other deportees were sent to a hotel in Ghana. She said she was there for six days before video captured her being dragged.
A bus arrived to take Kuyateh to Sierra Leone – though a U.S. judge had ordered that she could not be sent there. She told News4 she resisted.
“That’s when they dragged me. So, they bumped the back of my head,” Kuyateh said.
The I-Team obtained multiple videos of the dragging, which were sent to her family and provided to News4.
Kuyateh said she believes the people on video in green uniforms worked for Ghana's government.
Photos show some of the injuries Kuyateh said she sustained from being dragged.
The video went viral overseas, and several media outlets in West Africa reported that the Sierra Leone High Commission, which is like its embassy in Ghana, said it’s aware of what happened and will investigate.
News4 asked the Ministry of the Interior for Ghana about this. They acknowledged our email but did not answer our questions. We received no response from Sierra Leone officials.
Kuyateh said she’s safe for now in an undisclosed location in Sierra Leone. But she wants to be with her family.
“I consider America my home. It's like, I built relationships there,” she said.
In the home she owns in Bowie, her family asked what her future would hold and if she would ever return. The I-Team asked her son if she felt that the U.S. had failed his mom.
“Yes, one hundred percent. I felt like they’ve been failing her,” Alghali said.
The I-Team reached out to ICE in Maryland for comment several days ago. They asked that we share our videos of Kuyateh being dragged, which we did. They still have not responded to our questions about her case.
In September, the U.S. Department of Justice argued in federal court that it had no power to control how another country treats deportees. It said that Ghana had pledged to the U.S. that it wouldn't send deportees back to their home countries.
The United Nations human rights office has called on Ghana to stop deporting people from the U.S. to their home countries if U.S. courts have said it’s dangerous for them to return.
Kuyateh was the primary caregiver for her mother and father. She told the I-Team she’s worried about who will take care of them now. When she was detained in the U.S., she thought she was being released to head back to Maryland when she was forced to board the flight to Ghana.
Reported by Tracee Wilkins, produced by Rick Yarborough and Caroline Tucker, shot by Evan Carr and Brooks Meriwether, and edited by Jeff Piper
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