Asylum-seeker’s planned deportation to Congo is halted, at least for now

A Bolivian asylum-seeker has won a temporary reprieve from being deported from Iowa to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The move comes as the World Health Organization reports there are 906 suspected cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including 223 suspected deaths.

In April, U.S. District Judge Stephen H. Locher ruled that he had “little choice” but to deny José Yugar-Cruz’s motion to have the court block his removal from the United States. At the time, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was planning to deport Yugar-Cruz to Congo.

Attorney Alison Griffith of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid said Friday that Yugar-Cruz has now been granted temporary release from ICE’s custody, diverting him from immediate deportation.

In a written statement, Yugar-Cruz, a member of Escucha Mi Voz Iowa, expressed thanks to “everyone who advocated for me and spoke out against these third-country deportations. The fight continues forward.”

“We at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid are grateful for the work of the pro bono team at Green Espel PLLP and the University of Iowa, as well as for those at Escucha Mi Voz and the Iowa City Catholic Worker, who have accompanied Mr. Yugar Cruz throughout this process,” Griffith said. “It is through these partnerships that justice can be achieved.”

Court records show that Yugar-Cruz, who is from Bolivia, entered the United States on July 8, 2024, at the Arizona border and immediately surrendered himself to law enforcement and was taken into custody.

In October 2024, Yugar-Cruz applied for asylum, citing a threat of torture in his home country. In December 2024, an immigration judge issued a “withholding of removal” order under the Convention Against Torture, based on the torture Yugar-Cruz had previously faced in Bolivia and likely would face again if returned to that country.

Although the federal government did not appeal the immigration judge’s ruling, it opted to keep Yugar-Cruz detained in jail while it searched for another country that would accept him if he were to be deported.

For 17 months, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept Yugar-Cruz jailed while the agency tried without success to remove him to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico and Canada.

In December 2025, Yugar-Cruz took ICE to court, seeking his release and arguing that his indefinite imprisonment was a violation of his rights given his lack of criminal history. The U.S. Department of Justice agreed Yugar-Cruz should be released from the Muscatine County Jail, subject to his continued supervision by ICE.

With his asylum application still pending, Yugar-Cruz was released from jail. Days later, the Trump administration finalized a “Third-County Removal Agreement” with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which pledged that deportees sent there from the United States would not be subject to persecution or torture.

On March 9, 2026, ICE officials learned Congo had formally agreed to accept Yugar-Cruz for third-country removal. On April 8, 2026, Yugar-Cruz was taken into custody during what he expected to be routine, address-verification visit to an ICE field office in Cedar Rapids.

On the day his deportation flight was scheduled to leave the United States, Yugar-Cruz won a temporary stay in the proceedings. In April, however, Judge Locher cleared the way for deportation in a ruling that noted the U.S. Supreme Court had twice issued orders lifting injunctions that prohibited third-country removals such as the one Yugar-Cruz faced.

“In other words, when a different district court tried to do what Yugar-Cruz is asking this court to do, the Supreme Court intervened twice to stop it,” Locher stated in his ruling. “The court cannot award relief on a one-off basis that the Supreme Court would not allow to be awarded en masse.”