EDITOR'S NOTE: We need your help, and we need it now.. Contact your members of Congress and demand an immediate investigation into reports that medically vulnerable men at Krome are facing deportation to Africa. Share this story and help us identify the men whose lives may be hanging in the balance. The documented dangers of third-country deportations are already reason enough to demand answers. Nobody should be transported thousands of miles away without meaningful legal protections, appropriate medical care, and a clear understanding of what awaits them. The government has enormous resources to move people across borders. The rest of us have our voices, our determination, and the ability to make sure those people are not forgotten. Let's use them.
THEY ARE SENDING SICK MEN TO AFRICA
We’re receiving deeply disturbing information out of the Krome detention facility in Miami, Florida, where a group of men suffering from serious medical conditions have reportedly been selected for deportation. According to information shared with us, Mexico refused to accept these men because of their medical conditions. Rather than address their medical needs, federal immigration authorities have allegedly informed them that they will be transported to Africa on Wednesday, October 21. We are working to establish their identities, determine the severity of their medical conditions, and identify the country where the United States government intends to deposit them.
We don’t know which country these men are being sent to, whether they’ve ever set foot there, whether they speak the language, or whether they’ll have access to the medications and medical treatment they may need to survive. We don’t know whether their families have been notified or whether attorneys have been given a meaningful opportunity to challenge their removal. What we have is an alarming report involving medically vulnerable human beings, a rapidly approaching deadline, and a federal immigration system with an already documented history of sending people to countries where they have absolutely no connections.
And that history is extensive. On October 8th, Human Rights Watch published a 125-page investigation documenting the United States’ practice of deporting people to third countries, including nations across Africa. Researchers found that nearly 28,000 people had been transferred to countries other than their countries of citizenship or habitual residence between January 2025 and August 2026. More than 500 were sent to African countries. Some were detained upon arrival. Others found themselves stranded in unfamiliar places without legal status, family support, or any realistic means of rebuilding their lives. These weren’t hypothetical scenarios dreamed up by immigration advocates. They were documented through government records, court filings, interviews, and firsthand accounts.
Krome itself has already been connected to this machinery. In September, CBS Miami reported the case of Aristides Fernandez Garcia, a Cuban man who spent months in immigration detention, including time at Krome, before being deported to the Central African Republic. He reportedly had never even heard of the country before being sent there. More than a month after arriving, he described being unable to leave the building where he was staying. Another investigation published by El País documented the experience of Roberto Mosquera, a Cuban man detained at Krome who was subsequently deported to Eswatini. These are not ordinary deportations to someone’s homeland. These are human beings being transported across oceans and deposited in countries where their ability to live freely, obtain medical care, or reunite with their families may be profoundly uncertain.
And then there’s Krome itself. Amnesty International has documented serious concerns about medical treatment, overcrowding, prolonged solitary confinement, and access to legal representation at the facility. Government inspections have identified additional deficiencies involving medical staffing, sanitation, and detainee grievances. During one inspection in May 2025, the facility reportedly held 1,102 people despite a stated maximum capacity of 882. We are talking about an immigration detention center with a documented history of troubling conditions, now facing allegations that seriously ill men could be shipped to another continent because another country reportedly refused to receive them.
Consider what that means for someone who depends on daily medication, specialized treatment, or ongoing medical supervision. A deportation is not simply a plane ride. It can mean losing access to doctors, prescriptions, medical records, and the people who understand your condition. For someone with a serious illness, even a temporary interruption in treatment can have devastating consequences. We do not yet know whether these particular men face those risks, and that is precisely why their medical circumstances and the arrangements for their care must be established before any removal takes place.
Advocates are now discussing an emergency demonstration outside Krome within the next 48 hours, hoping to bring public attention to these cases before Wednesday’s reported deportations. We are attempting to verify the information and determine whether attorneys have been contacted.
Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, and Markwayne Mullin are treating medically vulnerable human beings as a logistical problem to be solved by finding another country willing to take them. These men have names. They have families. They have medical histories, fears, memories, and people who may be waiting desperately for them to come home. They are not defective merchandise to be returned to a manufacturer. They are not unwanted cargo to be unloaded at the next available airport.
We want to know who these men are. We want to know what medical conditions they have. We want to know which government has agreed to receive them, what medical arrangements have been made, and whether they have been afforded an opportunity to challenge their removal.
And we want those answers before Wednesday.
Because once that aircraft leaves American soil, the men aboard may find themselves thousands of miles from their families, their attorneys, and the medical care they depend upon, in countries where they have no established support system and little ability to make themselves heard.
We should not have to wait until people die in a foreign country to start asking why the United States sent them there in the first place.
