Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old grandmother, nurse, and longtime Maryland resident, was detained without warning during a routine immigration check-in.

Just weeks later, she was shackled and forcibly deported—not to her home country, but to Ghana, a nation she had never set foot in.

Footage now shows Kuyateh being dragged across the ground by men in uniform, sustaining visible injuries as she resisted being taken to Sierra Leone—a country where a U.S. judge had already ruled she could not be sent due to a history of torture.

Her case is part of a disturbing pattern under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program, which has resulted in people being dumped in unfamiliar nations with no legal basis or ties—often without notice or protection.

We are calling on:

Congressional Immigration Committees
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Government of Ghana
To:

• Immediately investigate the deportation of Rabbiatu Kuyateh, including how a U.S. court order was ignored.
• Ensure her safe return to the United States to reunite with her U.S. citizen family and provide care for her elderly parents.
• Suspend all third-country deportations pending public oversight and legal review.
• Demand accountability from governments receiving U.S. deportees without consent, infrastructure, or legal protections in place.

Rabbiatu has lived in the U.S. for 30 years. She was a legal resident, a caregiver, and a taxpayer. Her removal wasn’t just cruel—it was unlawful.

Sign this petition if you believe deportation should never mean abuse, violence, or betrayal of justice. Rabbiatu must come home.