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The woman is not a criminal fugitive in Ghana. She is not a Ghanaian citizen. She is Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a nurse from Prince George’s County, Maryland—a mother and grandmother who has called the United States home for 30 years. Just two months prior to this scene, a U.S. immigration judge had explicitly ruled that she could not be deported to her native Sierra Leone due to a credible, high-probability threat of torture.
Yet, on November 12, 2025, Kuyateh was forced onto a plane in Accra and flown to Freetown, Sierra Leone—the exact fate the American judicial system had forbidden.
Her case has exposed a terrifying evolution in U.S. immigration enforcement: a practice legal experts are calling “chain refoulement,” or the “laundering” of deportation. By utilizing third-country transit hubs like Ghana, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has effectively bypassed federal court orders, outsourcing the final, dirty leg of removal to foreign governments with whom they maintain opaque, informal agreements.
For the African diaspora in the DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) region, Kuyateh’s story is not just a tragedy; it is a structural warning. It signals that legal residency, work authorization, and even federal court protection may no longer be enough to prevent removal when diplomatic loopholes are weaponized.
The Maryland Life Left Behind
To understand the severity of Rabbiatu Kuyateh’s removal, one must understand the life she built in Maryland. Having fled the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone three decades ago, she settled in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., a region home to one of the largest Sierra Leonean populations in the United States.
Tracee Wilkins, News4 investigative reporter described Kuyateh as the pillar of her family in Bowie, a quiet suburb in Prince George’s County. She worked as a nurse, serving on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, a period when the U.S. relied heavily on immigrant healthcare workers to stabilize a faltering system. For years, she complied with the system. She held valid work authorization and attended regular check-ins with ICE.
“She did everything right,” says her son, Mohamed Alghali, a U.S. citizen living in the DMV. “She checked in. She worked. She paid taxes. She raised us.”
The turning point came in July 2025. During a routine check-in in Baltimore—a meeting she expected to leave in time for dinner—she was detained. The shift in enforcement priority was sudden. She was transferred from Maryland to a detention center in Louisiana, miles from her legal counsel and family support system.
In September 2025, her family breathed a sigh of relief. A U.S. immigration judge granted her withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). The ruling was unequivocal: returning Kuyateh to Sierra Leone would likely result in her persecution or death due to her past political affiliations and the specific trauma she fled decades ago. Under U.S. law, she could not be sent back.
But the government found a workaround. If they couldn’t send her to Sierra Leone, they would send her somewhere else.
The “Third Country” Loophole
The mechanism used to remove Kuyateh relies on a controversial application of U.S. immigration law (INA Section 241(b)(2)), which allows removal to a third country if the country of origin is unavailable. However, legal experts argue the State Department is weaponizing this statute using a new, opaque arrangement with Ghana.
Unlike a formal treaty ratified by Congress or the Ghanaian Parliament, this operation rests on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)—a non-binding “handshake deal” that lacks the rigorous human rights vetting of a formal Safe Third Country Agreement.
“They told us she was going to a safe place,” said Hannah Bridges, Kuyateh’s immigration attorney. “We were not informed of the transfer until it was already happening. It was a deliberate move to prevent us from filing an emergency stay.”
By labeling Ghana a “safe transit point,” U.S. officials circumvented the judge’s order. But once Kuyateh landed in Accra, the pretense of safety evaporated. She was held at the Vicsem Hotel, a facility that has effectively become a detention annex for transiting deportees. She was not granted freedom of movement. She was not allowed to seek asylum in Ghana. Instead, she was held in limbo until Ghanaian immigration officials could finish the job the U.S. was legally barred from doing.
The Local Fight Back: Councilwoman Fisher Takes Action
The deportation has drawn sharp rebuke from local leaders in Prince George’s County, who view the federal government’s actions as a betrayal of local immigrant communities.
Councilwoman Wanika Fisher (District 2), who represents a district with a significant immigrant population, issued a blistering statement condemning the removal.
“I am heartbroken and upset to hear about our government’s failure to protect Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a Maryland resident of 30 years who was unexpectedly detained in July, despite having a work permit,” Fisher stated. “She was deported to Ghana in September, where she was physically assaulted and dragged by Ghanaian officials. The assault happened after Ghanaian officials informed her that she would be deported to Sierra Leone, her home country, which she escaped from 30 years ago after being tortured by the Sierra Leonian government.”
Fisher, an attorney and daughter of Nigerian and South Asian immigrants, argues that Kuyateh’s case represents a systematic violation of due process.
“During this process Rabbiatu’s civil rights were violated multiple times. The U.S. government failed to notify Rabbiatu before her detainment. Additionally, she was not allowed to seek protection from removal to a third-world country,” she added.
In response to what she terms the “weaponization” of ICE, Fisher who lead the bill and cosponsored by Council Members Watson, Oriadha, Hawkins, has successfully passed new county-level legislation to create a firewall between local government and federal immigration enforcement.
“This is why I passed CB-104-2025, which states that any county employee who interacts with ICE in any capacity will be brought before the Board of Ethics,” Fisher explained. The bill is designed to ensure that county resources—and county employees—are not complicit in federal deportation pipelines that violate residents’ rights.
“This administration’s choice to weaponize ICE is destroying the fabric of our country on a political, economic, and social level,” Fisher said. “It is creating fear and chaos, not keeping people safe from harm.”
The bill ensure county employees and staff (including Prince George’s County Public Schools) are prohibited from engaging with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on social media or through other means for county purposes. Resident Data Protection: Reinforces that ICE is barred from accessing residents’ information through county agencies and institutions.
The Incident at the Vicsem Hotel
The events of November 12, 2025, were captured on cell phone video by bystanders and other deportees, images that have since gone viral across the diaspora. The footage contradicts official narratives of a “standard transfer.”
Kuyateh, suffering from an asthma attack and extreme distress, collapsed. Rather than receiving medical aid, she was set upon by men in civilian clothes and vests—believed to be Ghanaian operatives working in coordination with immigration enforcement. They grabbed her limbs and dragged her across the hotel driveway as she screamed for help.
“They treated her like a bag of trash,” a witness stated in the widely circulated video. “This is a grandmother.”
The Sierra Leone High Commission in Ghana reportedly attempted to intervene, requesting access to Kuyateh to verify her condition and legal status. They were denied. In a breach of consular protocol, Kuyateh was rushed to the airport and forced onto a commercial flight to Freetown.
This handover is the crux of the “chain refoulement” accusation. By sending her to Ghana, the U.S. technically obeyed the judge’s order not to send her to Sierra Leone. But by sending her to a country that immediately deported her to Sierra Leone, the U.S. achieved the prohibited result. It is, in essence, deportation money laundering: moving the “asset” through a clean intermediary to hide the illicit final destination.
The Silence in Freetown
Today, Rabbiatu Kuyateh is in hiding.
Upon arrival in Freetown, she did not return to a family home, because it is no longer safe. She is currently in a secret location, moving frequently to avoid detection by the factions she fled 30 years ago. Her family in Maryland reports that she is injured from the assault in Ghana, traumatized, and without access to her regular medications.
“We are living in a nightmare,” her son told local reporters in Bowie. “We don’t know if she is eating. We don’t know if she is safe. We are American citizens, and our government did this to our mother.”
The “Gateway” Betrayal
The role of Ghana in this operation has sparked outrage and legal challenges within West Africa. Ghana has spent millions positioning itself as the “Gateway to Africa,” encouraging the Year of Return and seeking diaspora investment. However, its role as a deportation sub-contractor for the West undermines this brand.
In Accra, the civil society organization Democracy Hub has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, arguing that the Ghanaian government’s acceptance of U.S. deportees without a ratified treaty violates the Ghanaian Constitution and the ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) protocol on free movement.
The lawsuit alleges that Ghana is acting as a “black site” for Western immigration enforcement, accepting flights of deportees from Togo, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone only to expel them immediately.
A change.org petition started which had over 400 votes as at the date of this reporting is urging congress, DHS, the U.N. human rights office, and the Ghanaian government to investigate how the court order was ignored, suspend third‑country deportations, hold receiving governments accountable, and ensure Rabbiatu can safely reunite with her U.S. citizen family and care for her elderly parents
A Chilling Precedent
For the Prince George’s County community, the Rabbiatu Kuyateh case is a watershed moment. It suggests that the protections of the U.S. court system effectively end at the tarmac.
Legal experts warn that if this “Ghana Option” remains unchallenged, it provides a blueprint for bypassing CAT protections globally. Any immigrant who wins a withholding of removal case could simply be routed through a third country willing to do the dirty work.
As of December 17, 2025, the State Department has not issued a formal comment on why a Maryland resident was transferred to a third country without legal notice, nor why U.S. taxpayers funded a flight to a nation that served only as a revolving door to danger.
For Councilwoman Fisher and the Kuyateh family, the fight is now about accountability—and ensuring no other Maryland resident disappears into the same loophole.
“My heart breaks for Rabbiatu, Rabbiatu’s son, Mohamed Alghali, and Rabbiatu’s parents, for whom she is the primary caregiver,” Fisher said. “I pray that Rabbiatu’s colleagues and loved ones can find peace during this difficult time.”
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