ICE has deported a Congolese asylum seeker to an unknown African nation despite her being granted permission to stay in the United States, according to federal court documents. Jane Doe, a 28-year-old woman who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo after her husband ordered her father's execution, was secretly flown out of the country on February 15, 2026.

Doe had been granted a withholding of removal decision last June, which bars deportation to DR Congo where her abuser remains a powerful politician. Her attorneys claim they received no notice of her removal and have no idea where she was sent, though court filings indicate she was loaded onto a deportation flight bound for multiple African nations including Senegal, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana and Nigeria.

The deportation follows a Supreme Court decision allowing ICE to send deportees to countries where they have no connections. Since then, ICE has spent more than $40 million fighting legal battles over removals to distant nations like Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda and South Sudan. Attorneys argue the removal violates Doe's constitutional rights and puts her life in grave danger, as her husband has continued tracking her across continents and threatened to kill her.