{"id":422535,"date":"2026-10-08T20:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/422535\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T20:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:02:07","slug":"deported-to-central-african-republic-a-transgender-woman-who-lived-openly-in-miami-is-hiding-again-international-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/422535\/","title":{"rendered":"Deported to Central African Republic, a transgender woman who lived openly in Miami is hiding again | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) \u2014 In Miami, Daniela Fuentes styled hair for clients and performed in drag. She wore her wig in public and dressed as the woman she had known herself to be since adolescence in Cuba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, more than 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers) away in the Central African Republic, she wears men\u2019s clothes, lowers her voice and tries not to draw attention to the breasts she developed after beginning hormone treatment as a teenager. As part of U.S. efforts to deport people to countries other than their own, authorities sent her Aug. 29<\/a> to a place where she has no ties and where advocacy groups have reported rights violations of sexual and gender minorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is difficult here because I have to hide who I am,” said Fuentes, a 32-year-old transgender woman living on a compound she rarely leaves, sharing a room with four Cuban men also deported from the U.S. \u201cI don\u2019t know this place, the people or the language.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Central African Republic \u2014 one of the world’s poorest countries, a place with a history of conflict that the U.S. State Department advises<\/a> American travelers to avoid \u2014 is one of at least 12 African nations<\/a> that signed agreements to accept \u201cthird-country\u201d deportations, a policy the U.S. Supreme Court last month<\/a> allowed to continue, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n

In the Central African Republic \u2014 where transgender people have little to no legal protections and are marginalized in much of society \u2014 Fuentes dons her wig only in the privacy of her bathroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole life, my whole identity, was taken away from me,\u201d Fuentes said.<\/p>\n

Public records say a judge ordered Fuentes to leave the U.S. but offer no other information. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn’t reply to emailed questions.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people have been deported to \u201cthird countries\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuentes’ compound in the capital, Bangui, is an apartment complex where the government houses male deportees.<\/p>\n

Fuentes said she can leave but that officials have advised her and others to avoid it \u2014 they have no identification, which could lead to issues with the police. It also means they can’t work, she said, and she’s waiting on documents that would allow her to leave the country. The International Organization for Migration, an agency associated with the United Nations, has provided food, and the migrants say they’ve crowdsourced for donations to buy groceries.<\/p>\n

The U.S. \u2014 via agreements often not made public \u2014 has deported about 25,000 people to more than two dozen countries that aren’t their own, the vast majority to Mexico, according to a tally by Third Country Deportation Watch, a partnership of Refugees International and Human Rights First. The U.S. has not released numbers or details.<\/p>\n

From January 2025 to August 2026, more than 500 were sent to countries in Africa, according to a Human Rights Watch report published Thursday \u2014 including at least 12 people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and were deported to places that criminalize same-sex relations or public same-sex romantic conduct. Some advocates say the number is likely higher.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government says the policy is lawful and that receiving governments provide assurances deportees won’t be persecuted or tortured.<\/p>\n

Daniela Fuentes says ICE detained her with men<\/p>\n

Fuentes grew up in La Lisa, on Havana’s outskirts, and said she understood from childhood that she was different. She began living as a woman in adolescence and started taking hormones at 18.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Fuentes sold her home and left amid a deepening economic crisis and a crackdown on dissent. Making her way to the U.S., she said, she presented as a man traveling through Central America; she believed it was safer.<\/p>\n

After seven months in Mexico, she said, she entered the U.S. through Texas via CBP One, a President Joe Biden-era online appointment system that allowed migrants to live in the country for two years on humanitarian grounds. Then she went to Miami.<\/p>\n

Though she lacked permanent legal status, Fuentes said Miami offered the freedom to move through daily life as herself.<\/p>\n

That ended when officers encountered her outside a motel. Fuentes said they learned she had missed an immigration court hearing in Texas. She said she asked that the case be moved to Florida but received no response.<\/p>\n

Fuentes said she was taken into custody and later placed in immigration detention with men. Officials confiscated her wig and gave her a male detainee\u2019s uniform, she said.<\/p>\n

Deportees said they boarded a flight without knowing the destination<\/p>\n

Fuentes was held at two detention facilities in Florida, then transferred to Texas. When armed officers arrived there, she said, she suspected she was facing deportation, but they didn’t reveal she was being sent to Africa until about five hours into the flight.<\/p>\n

Fuentes said she does not understand why she was sent there rather than Cuba. She told AP she has no lawyer.<\/p>\n

Yasmany Moreno, another Cuban deportee in Bangui, said that upon arriving, the group had no visas or documents establishing their legal status in the country. Officials spoke of providing assistance for 90 days, he said, but the deportees didn’t know what would happen afterward or where they would live.<\/p>\n

Several told AP their longer-term status remained unclear and that U.S. authorities took their documents.<\/p>\n

A policy officer at the Central African Republic\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the deportees are in \u201cgood hands\u201d and are being monitored by the International Organization for Migration. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.<\/p>\n

Fuentes spends most days inside<\/p>\n

Fuentes said the Cuban men in her room know she is a woman and look out for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal appearance is awful,\u201d she said. \u201cI look like a different human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuentes said she has no passport or other identification Most days, Fuentes remains at the compound.<\/p>\n

She said Cuba has agreed to accept her return \u2014 a Cuban embassy document shows she is authorized.<\/p>\n

But Fuentes said she hopes to seek asylum elsewhere, possibly Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe harassment and economic hardship that caused me to flee still remain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Jean Fernand Koena in Bangui, Central African Republic; Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis; and Cristiana Mesquita in Havana contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAKAR, Senegal (AP) \u2014 In Miami, Daniela Fuentes styled hair for clients and performed in drag. She wore…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[166699,1928,477,47683,1841,123,125,124,99,1110,4147,10645],"class_list":["post-422535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-central-african-republic-deportees-immigration-lgbtq","tag-gender","tag-general-news","tag-government-policy","tag-immigration","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-politics","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}