U.S. moves to return Egyptian man from Equatorial Guinea after court order

Trump administration has deportation deals with more than 30 countries

The Trump administration on Friday said it has begun facilitating the return to the United States of Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian man it deported earlier this year to Equatorial Guinea, in a rare instance of the government working to reverse a third-country deportation. The announcement came in a filing from Timothy Courchaine, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, responding to a federal judge’s order earlier this week.

Arizona District Court Judge John Hinderaker, an appointee of President Trump, ruled Oct. 6 that the Department of Homeland Security violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment when it removed Soliman to a country where he has no ties. The judge wrote that it is “unrebutted that he has since been held under armed guard; threatened at gunpoint; and arrested, beaten, and held incommunicado by Equatorial Guinean authorities.”

Soliman, who is gay, had previously obtained an order from a U.S. immigration judge blocking his removal to Egypt, where he could be persecuted for his sexuality, according to court records. Instead, DHS deported him to Equatorial Guinea earlier this year. Freedom House, a nonprofit devoted to protecting and growing democracy, and human rights across the globe, ranks Equatorial Guinea as one of the least free countries in the world.

Friday’s filing said the administration is working “collaboratively” with Soliman’s lawyers to find and contact him and is “beginning the process to facilitate” his return.

The court order came days after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume deportations of migrants to countries where they have no ties, at least temporarily, while agreeing to hear the broader case in full oral argument in December.

DHS told NPR in a statement this week that it would comply with lawful court orders and that Soliman would continue to receive due process. A spokesperson added: “But the end result will be the same — he will not remain in the U.S. This administration will not ignore the rule of law.”

Dana Camilleri, one of Soliman’s lawyers, said compliance requires diplomats in Equatorial Guinea to work to facilitate her client’s release. She said she is working to get a similar outcome for another client in the central African country, a gay Brazilian man.

“We’re all just really hopeful that this could be the beginning of getting them home,” Camilleri said. “Because they’re in an awful situation, and our government put them there.”

The office of the U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea did not respond to a request for comment.

Soliman emigrated to the U.S. from Egypt when he was a child, grew up in Arizona and became a green card holder, according to court filings. He lost his immigration status after a 2023 drug possession and aggravated assault conviction led to a prison sentence. An immigration judge subsequently ruled he could not be removed to Egypt, where he would most likely be tortured.

Soliman has been held at a decommissioned hotel under armed guard, where he has been threatened at gunpoint, arrested, beaten and prevented from communicating with family or lawyers, according to court filings.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which advocates for a fair process for immigrants in the U.S., said the harm Soliman is alleged to have suffered in Equatorial Guinea could put the U.S. in violation of international law. The U.S. is a signatory of the UN convention against torture, and domestic law makes it illegal to send someone to a place where they will be persecuted, he said.

“All of this really violates a lot of the basic principles of due process and human rights that Americans support,” Reichlin-Melnick said, calling the situation “a direct rebuke to the Trump administration’s broader strategy of third country removals.”

The Trump administration has made deals with over 30 countries to deport migrants to places where they have no ties or connections, according to NPR’s reporting.

Hinderaker’s order marks the second time a judge has forced the government to return a third-country migrant from an African nation. A Colorado judge earlier this year ordered the return of Brayan Omar Sanchez Servellon, originally from Honduras, who was sent to the Central African Republic.