veritenewsnola The Trump administration has begun deporting Latin American immigrants from detention facilities in the U.S. to the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Associated Press. Among them is a 23-year-old, queer South American woman who was detained in Louisiana for 15 months by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a court document submitted by U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller of the Department of Justice’s Western District of Louisiana confirmed. Last year, an immigration judge granted the woman protection from removal back to her home country after she claimed she was subject to violence and persecution there as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. But the government kept her detained as it sought to send her instead to Congo through a third-country deportation agreement. Earlier this month, as part of a lawsuit the woman filed against ICE in December, a federal magistrate judge recommended that she be released. But before a district judge could sign off on that recommendation, the woman was deported. Story by Robert Stewart Photo by Gerald Herbert / AP View all 37 comments