Two Flights May Carry Ill ICE Detainees to Central African Republic

Two deportation flights were expected Thursday and Friday to carry gravely ill ICE detainees from South Florida to the Central African Republic, with Burundi also under consideration, according to immigration attorney Shalyn Fluharty, who relayed accounts directly from detainees. The flights test a third-country removal policy the Supreme Court reactivated on September 29, less than a month ago.

The trips would last more than 20 hours. Advocates say no reception plan, no medical arrangement, and no diplomatic acknowledgment awaits the deportees at the other end.

Who is affected and what changed?

Detainees at Krome North Processing Center in Miami and the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach were summoned to interviews with removal officers. Both facilities are run by private contractors under ICE agreements. Advocates consistently read such interviews as a signal of imminent removal.

The advocacy group Workers Circle flagged the situation to families and media. Fluharty told The Guardian that one flight was anticipated Thursday and one Friday. She warned that long-haul deportation flights carry particular risk for people managing diabetes, heart conditions, or stroke vulnerability, given prolonged restraint, disrupted meals, and limited access to medical intervention mid-flight.

Workers Circle Director of Social Justice Noelle Damico did not mince her words at a press conference: "It's abhorrent. This is profoundly inhumane."

Takeaway: Officer interviews preceded planned removals, and families learned of the flights only after that step.

The Cuban man at the center of the story

The highest-profile case involves Noslén Sendra, a 41-year-old Cuban in ICE custody since November 2025. He was first held at the Everglades facility known as "Alligator Alcatraz," which closed in June 2026, then transferred to Krome North in April.

Sendra has type 2 diabetes and has been hospitalized three times with acute pancreatitis. His wife, Anisley Cortés, says he lost more than 50 pounds in custody and remains medically fragile. Cuba refused to accept him as a deportee, and Mexico declined too, citing his health needs. ICE told him Africa would be the destination, according to his wife. No confirmed manifest places Sendra on this week's flights.

Fluharty questioned how ICE could certify as fit for travel a person with Sendra's documented history, given the agency's own fitness-to-fly assessment requirement.

Takeaway: With both Cuba and Mexico refusing him, Africa became the default on his immigration file.

What do the government's own inspectors say?

A DHS Inspector General report released September 11, 2026, based on an unannounced May 2025 inspection, found Krome North held 1,102 detainees in a facility built for 882 — 25 percent over capacity. The report documented:

• 15 vacant medical positions spanning behavioral health, psychology, nursing support, and administration;
• food-safety violations including improperly stored raw poultry;
• detainees sleeping on temporary cots or the floor.

At least 27 people died in ICE custody in 2026 through September, according to civil liberties groups, who call the tally an undercount partly because ICE rescinded a rule requiring disclosure of deaths within 30 days of release. The system held more than 68,000 people as of February, roughly 70 percent above pre-second-term levels. Workers Circle organizer Arianne Betancourt told Axios that detainees with serious conditions routinely arrive in third countries to find no medical support.

Takeaway: The facility sending sick detainees abroad could not fill its own medical vacancies.

What did the Supreme Court actually decide?

On September 29 the court stayed a ruling by Boston federal judge Brian Murphy — upheld by the First Circuit on September 18 — that had required meaningful written notice and a realistic chance to object before removal to a country not listed in a deportation order. Full arguments are set for December.

Solicitor General John Sauer called third-country removals "an essential tool to remove certain aliens" in filings. The U.S. has removal agreements with more than three dozen countries, most in Africa. In one 10-day span in late August, ICE sent more than 100 immigrants on three flights to eight African nations, per internal documents obtained by CBS News. A Human Rights Watch report of October 8, "To Scare People," tallied 536 third-country removals to Africa between January 2025 and early August 2026 — none to a deportee's country of citizenship.

Takeaway: The stay removed every legal obstacle to these removals until December's arguments.

What awaits deportees on arrival?

Arístides Fernández García, a 37-year-old Cuban, was removed to the Central African Republic at the end of July and spent nearly three months stranded in Bangui — a capital the State Department rates Level 4 "Do Not Travel" for armed conflict, kidnapping, landmines, and health dangers — before leaving for Bolivia this week. A 2021 West Africa-bound flight was canceled after Cameroonian detainees submitted sworn affidavits describing coerced fingerprinting and physical abuse during boarding.

A DHS spokesperson denied that sick detainees are being deported, said all travelers complete fitness-for-travel assessments and carry required medications, and said receiving countries provide diplomatic assurances. As of Friday morning, no federal court had blocked either flight. Neither the Central African Republic nor Burundi has publicly acknowledged expecting U.S. transfers.

Takeaway: The government asserts medical clearance; prior cases show deportees landing in conflict zones without support.