Overview
- U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker ruled on Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security must facilitate Ahmed Soliman’s release from Equatorial Guinean custody and arrange any travel documents needed for his return to the United States.
- Soliman was deported in April 2026 to Equatorial Guinea and last month video obtained by Reuters showed police pointing firearms at him; after that reporting he was taken into custody and held incommunicado at a gendarmerie station.
- An immigration judge had previously granted Soliman protection from forced return to Egypt because he feared persecution for being gay, yet U.S. officials sent him to a third country where he had no ties and where LGBT people face danger.
- Human Rights Watch documented 536 U.S. deportations to African countries that were neither migrants’ citizenship nor habitual residence from January 2025 through August 2026, and Reuters identified at least 40 cases of people with prior U.S. protection for LGBT persecution sent to African states hostile to LGBT people.
- The administration must report to the court within days and has 30 days to appeal, DHS has not said how it will comply, and the order could affect ongoing legal challenges to the third‑country deportation policy and the treatment of other deportees held overseas.