Moussa Diawara case: Houston dad deported to Ghana says he was then forced to Mali

Moussa Diawara spent nearly half his life in the United States. He married, raised two U.S. citizen children in the Houston area, drove for Uber and, according to CBS News, has no criminal record. This summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Ghana, a country he says he had never visited. Within days, he says, Ghanaian officials put him on a flight to Mali, the one country a U.S. immigration judge had ruled he could not be sent to.

His story, featured in a 60 Minutes report that aired Sunday night, has become one of the most detailed public accounts of how the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program works on the ground, and of what can happen after the plane lands.

Who is Moussa Diawara?

According to CBS News, Diawara, 57, is from Mali and came to the U.S. on a tourist visa at age 32. He overstayed that visa and later sought refugee protection, arguing he would be persecuted if returned to Mali. CBS reported he had converted to Christianity; Mali is a Muslim-majority country facing an Islamist insurgency.

In 2012, an immigration judge ruled he could not be deported to Mali but said the U.S. could find a safe alternative country if it ever wanted to remove him. That ruling allowed him to get a work permit. His wife is a registered nurse, and their children, 16 and 12, are U.S. citizens, Focal News reported.

What happened after his arrest

The timeline, as reported by CBS News and Focal News:

• July 11: ICE agents were waiting at his suburban Houston home as he finished an overnight Uber shift.
• Three weeks in detention: He says he was held in Texas without being able to speak to his lawyer or a judge.
• July 30-31: He was put on a deportation flight with 63 people that left Texas, stopped in Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic, and landed in Ghana on July 31.
• In Ghana: Diawara says he and others were held in a hotel under armed guard and couldn’t make phone calls.
• Within days: He says local officials forced him onto a flight to Mali, leaving him with no money or identification.

CBS reported that he was homeless and hiding in Mali when 60 Minutes first reached him in August. After several weeks, he escaped to another country with help from truckers. He asked that the country not be named for his safety.

The paperwork that listed Mali

Diawara believes U.S. officials knew he would end up in Mali. CBS News reported that a medical document he was given on the flight listed the destination as “SHRC Mali,” a reference to a Special High Risk Charter flight, and that both of his DHS-issued bag tags also listed Mali.

James Percival, the Department of Homeland Security’s top lawyer, told 60 Minutes that Diawara “wasn’t flown to Mali” and that he couldn’t speak to why the paperwork said so. A DHS spokesperson later said the bag tags were produced by contractors who don’t decide destinations and called the medical form a “clerical error.” Ghana’s government declined to comment, CBS reported.

What DHS says

DHS told CBS that Ghana had provided “diplomatic assurances” about Diawara’s safety. The department also questioned the credibility of his claim that he would face persecution in Mali. Percival said he wasn’t aware of cases in which Ghana sent deportees onward against their will, and suggested some people may choose to go home or be returned under foreign governments’ own procedures, according to Focal News.

Diawara’s account and the government’s account conflict on key points, and independent confirmation of what happened inside Ghana is limited.

Why the case matters

A ruling like Diawara’s is called “withholding of removal.” It doesn’t bar deportation to every country, but it prohibits sending a person to a place where they would likely face persecution or torture.

CBS reported that dozens of others on Diawara’s flight had the same protection. Of 19 people from the flight interviewed by 60 Minutes, 17 said they were sent against their will to countries U.S. judges had ruled they shouldn’t be returned to, including Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Gambia and Guinea. CBS also reported that ICE has deported about 25,000 people to dozens of third countries, which in return receive aid or other benefits from the U.S.

The broader legal fight is still open. According to Focal News, a federal appeals court in September upheld a ruling that found the third-country policy unlawful for denying due process, but the Supreme Court has allowed deportations to continue while it considers the case, with a hearing expected in December.

What happens next

Diawara’s attorney, Reuben S. Kerben, has asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to order his return to the United States, Focal News reported. No ruling on that request has been reported yet. In Texas, his family is waiting. “It feels really empty without him,” his son Corey said.

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