ICE Calls '60 Minutes' Deportation Report 'Fake & Gay' as Backlash Grows

A U.S. federal law enforcement agency posted the phrase "Fake & Gay!" from its official account on October 26, 2026, attacking a CBS "60 Minutes" investigation into the deportation of a Malian national to Ghana. The post by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) escalated a controversy over the administration's third-country deportation policies and drew condemnation from media watchdogs and civil rights groups.

What did ICE actually post?

Fox News national correspondent Brooke Taylor posted documents from Moussa Diawara's asylum application, noting he claimed fear of persecution in Mali as a homosexual man. ICE's official X account quote-tweeted the post with the words "Fake & Gay!" and called the "60 Minutes" report "shockingly poorly researched."

The agency also alleged that Diawara, a 57-year-old Texas father, now faces immigration fraud charges. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accuses him of falsely claiming to be gay to secure asylum. Diawara has maintained his primary fear stemmed from his conversion to Christianity in Muslim-majority Mali.

Critics described the rhetoric as unprofessional and a sign of broader politicization of immigration enforcement. In short, a federal agency mocked a television investigation in language more common to anonymous online accounts.

How did the deportation happen?

In 2012, a U.S. immigration judge granted Diawara "withholding of removal," a protection barring the government from sending him to Mali, where he would likely face persecution or torture. The ruling did not grant permanent residency, but it allowed him to obtain a work permit.

Diawara lived in the United States for 25 years, worked as an Uber driver, and has a U.S. citizen wife and two children. In July 2026, ICE agents detained him at his suburban Houston home after a night shift. He spent three weeks in detention without access to a lawyer or a judge before being placed on a Special High Risk Charter flight to Ghana on July 31 — a country with no prior connection to him.

What happened after he landed in Ghana?

According to the "60 Minutes" investigation, armed guards detained Diawara in a hotel and then forced him onto a flight to Mali, directly violating the judge's withholding order. DHS bag tags and medical documents issued to him reportedly listed Mali as the final destination. A DHS spokesperson attributed this to a "clerical error" by contractors and insisted the flight was always headed for Ghana.

Immigration attorneys argue that "diplomatic assurances" from third countries such as Ghana are routinely ignored. They point to video from last year showing Ghanaian officials dragging a U.S. deportee onto a flight back to her native Sierra Leone, despite her own withholding of removal order. DHS's top lawyer, James Percival, said he was unaware of Ghana sending individuals to other countries against their will.

The pattern here: deportees can be moved onward to the very countries U.S. judges placed off-limits.

How widespread is the practice?

Of the 63 people on Diawara's flight, which stopped in Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic before landing in Ghana, "60 Minutes" reached 19 individuals. Seventeen reported being sent onward to countries U.S. judges had explicitly ruled off-limits, including Niger, Nigeria, and Gambia.

Under the current administration, ICE has deported approximately 25,000 people to dozens of third countries, often in exchange for millions of dollars in foreign aid or diplomatic concessions. A federal appeals court recently upheld a ruling in a class-action lawsuit finding the policy unlawful because it denies deportees due process and fails to ensure their safety in receiving nations.

What happens next?

The Supreme Court has allowed the deportations to continue pending a full hearing in December. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats condemn the program, arguing it wastes taxpayer dollars, strains diplomatic relationships, and violates international law by outsourcing refugee protection to nations with questionable human rights records.

DHS maintains the policy is a necessary public safety measure. Percival argued that previous administrations failed to remove people with serious criminal records when home countries refused to accept them, noting that Eswatini and South Sudan agreed to take deportees convicted of severe crimes.

The "60 Minutes" review of Diawara's flight tells a different story: only 19 percent of passengers had been charged with or convicted of crimes, while 62 percent had no criminal record at all. Diawara remains in hiding as his attorney fights for his return to the United States.

The case now tests whether judicial protections for vulnerable migrants can withstand an enforcement apparatus openly contemptuous of them.