Deportees Sent to Liberia Recount Harrowing Details of U.S. Expulsion and Treatment by ICE

Deportees Sent to Liberia Recount Harrowing Details of U.S. Expulsion and Treatment by ICE - The New York Times

Skip to contentSkip to site index

Africa

Today’s Paper

Trump

Administration

* live
Updates
Aug. 30, 2026, 9:22 a.m. ET
* U.S. Debt
* New White House Counsel
* U.S.-Canada Trade War
* Plans to Overhaul Voting
* Approval Rating

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

Supported by

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Deportees Recount Harrowing Journeys to Africa: Shackles, a ‘Freezer’ and Blows

Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.

Listen · 12:09 min

*
*
*

!A large white airplane with a blue and orange tail on a tarmac, next to a mobile staircase. People in yellow vests work around the plane, seen behind a chain-link fence.

*A plane carrying deportees from the United States at the international airport outside of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on Aug. 20.

Credit...

Matthew Jacobs/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images*

By

Emmanuel Akinwotu

Pranav BaskarGenevieve Glatsky and Hamed Aleaziz

Emmanuel Akinwotu traveled to Marshall, Liberia, to interview several deportees at their hotel. Pranav Baskar reported from New York; Genevieve Glatsky from Bogotá, Colombia; and Hamed Aleaziz from Washington.

Aug. 30, 2026

Updated 7:32 a.m. ET

See more of our coverage in your search results. Encuentra más de nuestra cobertura en los resultados de búsqueda. Add The New York Times on Google Agrega The New York Times en Google

Leonardo Sánchez wailed in pain for hours on the deportation flight from Louisiana to West Africa, he and six other detainees said.

He’d been cuffed around his wrists and ankles. A chain around his waist dug into his grossly protruding abdomen — the result of years-old wounds and surgeries that doctors said left his intestines barely inside his body.

Mr. Sánchez, a 49-year-old Cuban, begged for medical attention from several of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on the aircraft.

“I was in pain, crying like a little kid,” he said. But the agents wouldn’t remove his chains or let him use the toilet, he and other detainees said. He wet himself.

Like many of the more than two dozen deportees on the flight with him, Mr. Sánchez said he did not know where he was being taken. Several panicked when they suspected it was Liberia, after one of them saw it written on a sheet of paper held by an ICE official in Louisiana.

When some protested, they were beaten by agents, five of the deportees said. Some were slammed to the ground or struck with blows, several said. One showed cuts along his wrists and bruises around his neck, which he said he received after resisting getting on the plane. Another said some deportees were left screaming in pain.

Map locates Monrovia and Marshall in Liberia, and Malabo in Equatorial Guinea.

AFRICA

mali

NIGERIA

ivory

coast

ghana

Monrovia

Marshall

liberia

Malabo

equatorial

guinea

Atlantic

Ocean

gabon

500 miles

The New York Times

---

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

---

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Related Content

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Site Index

Site Information Navigation

* ©2026 The New York Times Company
* NYTCo
* Contact Us
* Accessibility
* Work with us
* Advertise
* T Brand Studio
* Privacy Policy
* Cookie Policy
* Terms of Service
* Terms of Sale
* Site Map
* Canada
* International
* Help
* Subscriptions
* Manage Privacy Preferences