Overview
- The U.S. District Court judge ruled on Thursday that Ahmed Soliman’s April removal to Equatorial Guinea violated his due process rights and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate his release and return to the United States.
- The judge required DHS to provide a court update within three days, give Soliman a meaningful opportunity for a credible‑fear screening, and allowed the government 30 days to appeal the decision.
- Soliman, who grew up in Arizona and has said he fears being killed in Egypt because he is gay, has been detained in Equatorial Guinea since his April deportation and was reported to have been held incommunicado after videos showed armed officers confronting migrants at the Hotel Bamy in Malabo.
- Human Rights Watch documented 536 people sent by the U.S. to African countries that were neither their citizenship nor habitual residence between January 2025 and August 2026, and advocates and U.N. experts have reported risks of arbitrary detention, abuse, and criminalization of LGBT people in receiving states.
- The order raises immediate diplomatic and operational questions about how DHS will secure Equatorial Guinean cooperation, arrange travel documents, and whether the ruling will affect broader litigation and the administration’s third‑country deportation program.