Hunter
10/02/26
The family of 43-year-old Fatou Traore, the Iowa City woman who has detained by ICE last week and faces deportation to Sierra Leone, is denying accusations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she used a fake birth certificate and passport to enter the United States.
Esoumaila Diallo, one of Traore’s sons, told the Gazette, “That’s false information.”
An ICE media contact told the newspaper that Traore admitted to using fake documents to enter the US and called her an illegal alien from the Ivory Coast. The contact added that ICE is applying the law as weritten, and if a judge finds an illigal alien has no right to be in this country, they will be removed.
Traore is currently in a Louisiana detention center. Her son talked to her and she denies ever admitting to using fake documents, and every time she’s been asked to sign a document or answer questions she’s requested her lawyer.
Online records show Traore, her husband and sister work as custodians for the University of Iowa.
In a statement from ICE, they encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the US Customs and Border Protection Home App. They’re offering illegals $3000 and a free flight if they self-deport. By taking this option, illegal aliens reserve the chance to come back to America the right, legal way. Otherwise, they will be deported without a chance to return.
A US Circuit Court of Appeals judge blocked third-country deportations last month, but the US Supreme Court blocked the court’s ruling Tuesday and allowed third-country deportations to continue. The Supreme Court says they will hear oral arguments in December and issue a final ruling.
Attorneys for Traore, who has no criminal history, have filed a motion to stay her removal and contest her planned removal to Sierra Leone, a country she has no ties with.