Adriana Quiroz Zapata is a Colombian woman who survived torture at the hands of police officers connected to her ex-boyfriend. She fled to the United States with her life. Because of her documented history of abuse, U.S. law, through the Convention Against Torture, recognized that sending her back to Colombia could get her killed.

So on April 16, 2026, immigration authorities sent her to the Democratic Republic of Congo instead. A country she has never lived in. A country where she has no family, no support, and no safety net.

Zapata is diabetic. DRC officials have told her attorney that her prescribed medication cannot be provided there. She is reportedly being given bread and water, with supervised access to a convenience store. Her attorney, Lauren O'Neal, describes her as "fragile" and "very sensitive." There are also reports that officials from the DRC and Colombia are pressuring her to sign documents that would strip her of the legal protections she spent years fighting to secure, and potentially send her back to the country where she was first tortured.

On April 23, O'Neal filed an expedited humanitarian parole request with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asking that Zapata be returned to the United States. That request has not yet been approved.

Representative Rob Menendez of New Jersey, whose district includes members of Zapata's family, has said plainly: "If we do not get her back she will die."

We are calling on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve Adriana Zapata's humanitarian parole request immediately. She has done everything right. She followed legal channels, filed complaints when she was mistreated, and sought protection through the courts. What is happening to her now is not enforcement. It is punishment.

Adriana Zapata should not have to die in a country she has never called home. Approve her parole now.