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NJ-bound woman was deported to Congo. Feds must say how they'll bring her back to US.
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published May 15, 2026
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Courtesy of Lauren O’Neal
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published May 15, 2026
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Federal immigration officials have until 5 p.m. Friday to tell a court how they’re working to return a woman with New Jersey ties to the United States “as soon as possible,” after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration illegally deported her to Africa last month.
Judge Richard Leon on Wednesday evening ordered federal authorities to return Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata, a 55-year-old Colombian national, to the United States. Zapata had been deported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on April 16, despite DRC authorities telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not accept Zapata because they lacked the healthcare infrastructure to care for her complex medical issues, according to court filings and Zapata’s lawyer.
An immigration judge in 2024 ruled she could not be deported to Colombia after crossing the border from Mexico to Texas that year, because she would likely face torture in the South American country. That left her in ICE detention in Texas as federal authorities looked for a third country to send her to.
Zapata’s lawsuit described a campaign of violence by her former intimate partner, who the suit says has professional and family ties to the Colombian National Police. It says he repeatedly raped her, beat her so badly he broke her teeth, stabbed her in her genitalia and cut cross-shaped scars into her chest.
The lawsuit says he also attacked Zapata’s sister while in New Jersey, and that Colombian National Police accompanied her partner or stood by during the attacks.
Leon, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, ruled the Trump administration broke federal law by sending Zapata to a nation that was unwilling to accept her. The judge compared the situation to that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man at the center of a deportation fight that has been before the U.S. Supreme Court and has captured national headlines.
“There is no question that [Zapata] meets the standard for irreparable harm,” Leon wrote in his ruling. “She has been sent to a country that refused to accept her because they cannot provide sufficient medical care. As a result, she faces a daily risk of medical complications, up to and including death.”
Leon ordered federal authorities to continue updating the court every 72 hours after reporting back Friday.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
Lauren O’Neal, Zapata’s lawyer, said she’s preparing for how to respond if federal officials don’t move quickly to bring her client back to America. O’Neal said the gap between her hopes and her expectations for how immigration authorities will act continues to widen.
“Their disregard for the law is so blatant at this point,” she said. “It's like they know they have very little accountability now.”
Rep. Rob Menendez, a Democrat who represents North Bergen and has been working with Zapata’s family on the case, expressed more optimism.
“Even with this administration I'm going to believe that they will do what they are required to do under this order to bring Adriana back,” Menendez said. “She should have never been taken to the DRC, so they need to undo this damage immediately, and my expectation is that they will.”
Zapata’s lawsuit describes a litany of medical conditions the DRC said it was unprepared to accommodate, including “diabetes accompanied by black spots on her foot and back, peeling skin, blackened nails, and other manifestations consistent with severe vascular and metabolic disease." The suit cites the DRC’s denial, which warned her presence would pose “a risk of health spread within our reception centres and the general population."
Zapata was trying to make it to family in North Bergen when she entered the United States. Monica Van Housen, Zapata’s niece, said the ordeal has been taxing on Zapata’s family in New Jersey.
“The situation has caused us trauma, has caused my aunt Adriana, mainly, a lot of trauma,” said Van Housen, who previously lived with the family in North Bergen before moving to Cliffside Park. “But we as a family also suffered with her, emotionally, financially, in every sense of the word.”
O’Neal and Van Housen both said they are in regular communication with Zapata. They said she has struggled emotionally and physically since being sent to the DRC, where she is being kept in a Kinshasa hotel under supervision of the International Organization for Migration.
Still, they said she is in good spirits after the court ruling.
“We've been through a lot in the past year or so,” Van Housen said. “After [Wednesday], we feel like God is good. We feel like light is shining down on us now.”
The DRC’s embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Tagged
Politics
immigration
new jersey
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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