Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari, the first Iranian-American Democrat elected to the United States Congress, unloaded on President Donald Trump Friday morning after reports confirmed that the administration had moved to deport Iranian women — who had been granted federal court protections against removal — to the Central African Republic, one of the most dangerous and impoverished nations on earth.
In a post to X published at 6:38 a.m. on June 12, 2026, Ansari wrote: “We went from ‘help is on the way’ for Iranian people to deporting Iranian asylum seekers – women fleeing persecution in Iran – to Central Africa. Donald Trump is a vile, racist person surrounded by racist sycophants carrying out these insane policies.”
The post, which linked to a New York Times report published the previous day, comes as the Trump administration executed what lawyers described as the first-ever deportation flight from the United States to the Central African Republic. The flight, which departed Thursday, carried approximately two dozen migrants from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and other nations — none of whom have any known ties to the country where they were sent.
Court Protections Bypassed, Lawyers Say
The deportees included at least two Iranian women who had been granted what is known as “withholding of removal” status — a legal protection that requires a higher burden of proof than standard asylum and is issued by a U.S. immigration judge when a person faces more than a 50 percent probability of being persecuted or tortured if returned to their home country. According to Sahar Jalili Pawelski, one of the women’s immigration lawyers, the Iranian women scheduled for the flight had no criminal record and had been granted those court-ordered protections against deportation to Iran. Ali Rahmana of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, who met with the women, said they were in “serious disbelief” upon learning they were to be sent to the Central African Republic.
Emily Trostle, another immigration attorney, stated that her client was not told where she would be sent until the day before the flight, and that DHS ignored requests for her client to speak with a U.S. asylum officer about her fears. “Despite being granted withholding of removal, these individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they have no status, no connection and no support network,” Trostle said. “We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled.”
A “Do Not Travel” Destination
The United States government itself considers the Central African Republic extraordinarily dangerous. The deeply impoverished country, plagued by conflict, is one of at least nine African nations that has agreed to accept third-country nationals deported by the U.S. under a series of often-secret agreements — despite the U.S. State Department’s own travel advisory designating the country as a “do not travel for any reason” destination. United Nations humanitarian agencies estimate that 2.3 million people in the Central African Republic will need humanitarian assistance in 2026, while more than 52,700 refugees and asylum seekers are already hosted there.
Anjli Parrin, director of the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, described the designation of the Central African Republic as a “safe third country” as absurd. “It’s one of the hardest places in the world to live,” Parrin said, adding that the country has no functioning health care system and that fears of violence are constant despite a tentative peace agreement. The U.S. government has itself documented significant human rights abuses there, including unlawful killings, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention.
One of the deportees, an elderly Syrian man represented by Alaska-based immigration attorney Margaret Stock, was described as bearing scars from torture in his home country. A U.S. immigration judge had previously determined that his fear of persecution as a Sufi Muslim in Syria was credible. Stock said her client also suffers from diabetes, a potentially fatal complication in a country where medical care for even routine ailments is severely limited. “He’s not going to be able to access his medication, and he’s going to die,” Stock said. “And they know he’s going to die if they send him there.”
Third-Country Deportations as Policy
The deportation flight to the Central African Republic is part of a broader Trump administration strategy of routing migrants to third countries with which the U.S. has struck deals — often in secret — as a means of executing removals it cannot otherwise carry out. The administration has persuaded several dozen countries to take in deportees who are not their own citizens, including African countries plagued by armed conflict, civil unrest, and political turmoil, like South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda have also agreed to accept third-country deportees from the U.S. Immigration lawyers have described the approach as a legal loophole designed to indirectly force asylum seekers back toward the countries they originally fled.
Rahmana of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund also raised a geopolitical dimension to the Central African Republic deportations specifically, noting Russia’s heavy influence in the country and Moscow’s close security ties with Tehran — raising the prospect that Iranian nationals sent there could ultimately face exposure to Iranian regime reach even thousands of miles from home.
Ansari’s Record on Iranian Immigration and Trump Policies
Ansari’s Friday post was far from the first time she has publicly clashed with the Trump administration over its treatment of Iranian nationals. In January 2026, Ansari and Rep. Dave Min released a joint statement condemning a scheduled deportation flight of at least 40 Iranian nationals directly to Iran, including LGBTQ individuals who face a death sentence under the Islamic Republic’s laws. “We are deeply disturbed by reports that the Trump administration plans to carry out a third deportation flight of Iranian nationals to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement read, noting that prior letters to Secretaries Rubio and Noem on the matter had received no substantive response.
In May 2026, Ansari introduced the Iranian Temporary Immigration Relief Act, legislation designed to provide Temporary Protected Status and work authorization to eligible Iranian nationals already living legally in the United States whose immigration cases had been stalled due to a Trump administration pause on USCIS adjudications. Just days before her Friday post, Ansari delivered a House Floor speech in support of the bill, saying: “Our bill is about fairness. It is about keeping a promise to people who followed the law, complied with every immigration requirement, and came to this country to study, research, innovate, and contribute.”
“Help Is on the Way” — A Promise Inverted
The phrase Ansari invoked in her post — “help is on the way” — was a line used by Trump and his administration during and after the Iran conflict period, a promise directed at the Iranian people as U.S. military operations unfolded. In February 2026, Ansari and Rep. Eric Swalwell introduced the bipartisan IRAN Act, legislation aimed at promoting internet freedom and access to information inside Iran — a bill whose press release explicitly cited Trump’s own “help is on the way” language as a benchmark against which his administration’s subsequent actions should be measured. In Ansari’s framing on Friday, that promise has now been inverted entirely: the same administration that pledged solidarity with Iranians is now sending Iranian women who fled that country’s persecution to one of the world’s most volatile and impoverished nations, bypassing the legal protections a U.S. court had granted them.
Separately, Ansari also introduced the Stop Inhumane Conditions in ICE Detention Act of 2026 in February, and has been a consistent voice on the House Oversight Committee challenging the administration’s immigration enforcement apparatus. In March, she delivered a floor speech in support of the bipartisan War Powers Resolution, calling Trump’s decision to launch military operations against Iran “an illegal war” conducted “without Congressional authorization and without presenting a clear plan to the American people.”
The Department of Homeland Security has declined to confirm details of the deportation flights, citing security reasons. The Central African Republic’s senior immigration official stated at the time that he had no knowledge of any finalized agreement with Washington — a reflection of the opacity that has characterized the administration’s third-country deportation arrangements from the outset.