Families of severely ill immigration detainees in two south Florida facilities say ICE is preparing to deport their loved ones to countries in Africa — specifically the Central African Republic and Burundi — as early as this week. The deportees have no ties to these nations. The trigger: Mexico has begun refusing entry to detainees whose medical conditions require too many medications, so ICE is routing them to third countries willing to accept them. The case of Noslén Sendra, a 41-year-old Cuban national, illustrates the mechanism. Sendra has uncontrolled diabetes and acute pancreatitis severe enough to require weeks of hospitalization. He lost over 50 pounds in custody. Cuba won't accept him as a deportee. Mexico won't accept him because his medication requirements are too extensive. ICE's solution: Africa. His wife, Anisley Cortés, says authorities told him plainly that because neither Cuba nor Mexico would take him, he would be sent to the continent. The family does not know which country, when exactly, or whether they will see him again. The facilities involved — Krome North processing center in Miami and Broward transitional center in Pompano Beach — are both privately run on behalf of ICE. A DHS Office of Inspector General report from last month found Krome holding 1,102 detainees in a facility with a maximum capacity of 882. Inspectors documented inadequate toilets, sinks, and showers, female detainees forced to use toilets in full view of men, and arriving detainees held for more than 24 hours on a bus in the parking lot because there was no room inside. Immigration attorney Shalyn Fluharty described the transport conditions: detainees shackled at hands, ankles, and waists for flights lasting up to 24 hours, with some placed in full body wraps with no ability to move. For someone with a heart condition, stroke risk, or insulin-dependent diabetes requiring regular food access, these conditions are potentially life-threatening. The flights are not a neutral transfer — they are a medical event imposed on medically vulnerable people. The legal architecture enabling this was confirmed last month when the US Supreme Court approved the practice of deporting detainees to third countries where they have no connections. A Human Rights Watch report from earlier this month documented what happens on the other end: persecution, arbitrary incarceration, and torture following arrival. Hundreds of detainees have already been sent to at least a dozen African nations. The practice is framed as a solution to overcrowding — itself a direct product of the administration's expanded immigration crackdown — but operates as a disposal mechanism for people the system cannot process. The Workers Circle, an immigration advocacy group monitoring conditions inside both facilities, says multiple sick detainees with varying conditions have been targeted. Families learned about the deportation operation only days before scheduled flights. Arianne Betancourt, the group's immigrant rights organizer, says families risk retaliation against their detained relatives by speaking publicly. The DHS spokesperson's response to a press inquiry was to demand the personal information of affected detainees; when provided with Sendra's details, the department went silent. What emerges is a system optimized for throughput, not outcomes. Overcrowding creates a pressure to move bodies out. Medical complexity makes certain bodies harder to move through normal channels. Third-country deportation removes the bottleneck by eliminating the requirement that the destination country have any relationship to the deportee. The cost — medical risk, family separation, potential torture — is externalized entirely onto the detainee and absorbed by nations with minimal capacity to provide care.
