Iowa City Community Outraged as Mother, Custodian Deported to Sierra Leone – Workday Magazine
Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/iowa-city-community-outraged-as-mother-custodian-deported-to-sierra-leone/)
Fatou Traore was deported to Sierra Leone, a country she had never previously been to. (Photo courtesy of family.)
Esoumaila Diallo, only 19 years old, is scrambling to fill the hole left when his mother, Fatou Traore, was detained by ICE on September 24, and then deported to Sierra Leone, a country she had never set foot in. Diallo lives with his parents in Iowa City, Iowa, and has three little brothers, the youngest of whom is three years old. His mother’s sudden and unexpected arrest and deportation caused him to miss so much school that he withdrew from his current semester at Kirkwood Community College, though he plans to go back. “I had to step up and at least try to take over her role, which I can’t,” he says. “I’m definitely trying my best with my other siblings, taking care of the house, chores, and stuff like that. But it’s really, really hard.”
Traore’s arrest has touched off outrage in her Iowa City community, where she works as a custodian at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Originally from Côte d’Ivoire, she was granted a withholding of removal in 2011. “To get withholding of removal you have to show there’s at least a 50% chance that you’ll be persecuted in your home country,” explains Alma Leonie David, an immigration attorney who has been in touch with Traore but is not her lawyer. “What’s happening now is that people who’ve lived here in the U.S. for decades, have families, they own houses, they have jobs, they have community, they built their whole life here, thinking they were safe, now the U.S. is saying, ‘Well, actually, we will deport you to a third country.’”
Diallo says his mother was detained after dropping off one of his brothers at early morning soccer practice, and then going to her sister’s house to take her to work. When he found out, he says, “I fly over there. I’m running as fast as I can to see what’s going on. But when I got there, unfortunately, it was too late. My mom was already gone with whoever took her.”
Supporters protested in Iowa City on September 30, lobbied congressional offices on October 2, and rallied in Cedar Rapids on October 7. On September 30, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican, wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security requesting a stay of deportation. “Deporting Fatou would deprive a young family of their mother and would violate the withholding of removal order, which allows Fatou to work and reside in the United States legally,” she wrote. (At the time, Traore was being detained at Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, La.)
Traore is part of a bargaining unit represented by AFSCME Council 61, Local 12, and the union has not yet released a statement about the deportation.
Dennis Walsh, Bishop of Davenport, wrote in an October 2 letter to the Department of Homeland Security that proceeding with the deportation would be a “grave violation of her human dignity and the rights that are intrinsic to each of us.”
Yet, Traore was sent to Sierra Leone on October 12, and her advocates say she was deported before a judge ruled on her motion for an emergency stay, and she was denied a fear screening, which is used to determine someone’s danger of persecution or torture in a third country. Traore is now in Sierra Leone, where, according to David, “She’s detained for all intents and purposes. She’s in a guest house under the care of, technically, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Sierra Leone, but they’ve contracted this private company.”
When I spoke to Diallo on October 14, he had talked on the phone with his mother the previous day. She told him she is doing okay, he says, “but she wouldn’t tell me if she’s doing horrible. So I don’t know if I believe her all the way. But you know, I’m praying and hoping that she actually is doing okay.”
There is a real danger, meanwhile, that she will be deported to Côte d’Ivoire, without consideration for risk of persecution. “The government of Sierra Leone is very committed to deporting everybody who arrives there within 14 days back to their country of origin,” David explains. “So it doesn’t matter that an immigration judge in the U.S. found that it’s more likely than not she’ll be persecuted in Côte d’Ivoire because, as far as Sierra Leone is concerned, she’s just there in transit, even though they have promised the U.S. government that they won’t send people to a country where they’re at risk.” They carrying out such deportations, David says, even though it violates their obligations under international law.
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has targeted workers across industries: street vendors, factory workers, landscapers, teachers, cooks, and waiters. Union members, labor leaders, and people in bargaining units are among those swept up, but so, too, are large numbers of workers who are not represented by unions.
The Trump administration has dramatically increased deportations to third countries.“Imagine fleeing from your home to the U.S. in search of safety, only to be forcefully uprooted again. Or imagine living in the United States for decades, putting down roots and building a life for you and your family, only to be forcibly separated and sent somewhere new you’ve never been,” Amy Fischer wrote for the Amnesty International USA blog in September 2025. “Ripped from your community and all the efforts you are making to build a life, you are told you are being deported, not back to your home country, but somewhere you’ve never been. A place where you don’t know the language or culture, you have no family, no support, and no promise of safety.”
Such deportations are hard on those who are left behind, too. Diallo says his father has been distraught, and his siblings are struggling to adjust to the new reality. “It’s definitely been very hard. They’ve been asking me questions, and some of the questions I can’t answer, like: ‘Where’s my mom? When is she gonna come back? Why did they take her?’ My 14-year-old brother knows what’s going on because he’s relatively older, but the eight-year-old and three-year-old, I can’t really tell them what’s going on because I don’t want to have them not eating or not sleeping or just losing their mind. I just tell them she’ll be back soon.”
Sarah is the Editor for Workday Magazine.
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