On a Sunday in late September, worshippers at a small church in Mesquite, Texas, prayed for the safe return of their beloved pastor, Samuel Nnamdi.

“It’s been hard,” said his 9-year-old American-born daughter in an interview with MS NOW. “In the middle of the day, when he calls us sometimes and then I start to miss him.”

She and her four siblings were separated from their 45-year-old father after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on his way to work for UPS on July 6, then subsequently deported to Ghana, a country he had never been to and has no ties to, as part of President Donald Trump’s expanded use of so-called third-country deportations.

MS NOW met with Nnamdi at an undisclosed location in West Africa — which MS NOW is not revealing as Nnamdi fears retribution — where he is stuck in limbo.

“One of the pains I have seen in this life is children not having their father around,” he said. “All I wanted to do was to raise my children, to raise my family.”

Nnamdi is one of more than 25,000 people deported to third countries during Trump’s second term, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a project tracking the Trump administration’s use of third-country deportation. The initiative has documented deportations to countries with human rights abuses and security concerns, including Latin American migrants sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo, migrants from Asia sent to South Sudan and an Iranian pro-democracy activist sent to the Central African Republic.

It is still unclear what many of the countries that have agreed to accept U.S. deportees are receiving in return. In many cases, the terms of the arrangements have not been made public.

The program, however, is already costing U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. A Washington Post investigation found the administration has authorized or pledged at least $410 million to facilitate third-country deportation agreements with 31 countries, including more than $81 million in direct payments to foreign governments.

In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told MS NOW: “Illegal aliens being sent to a third country receive notice and assurances prior to their removal, and ICE is given diplomatic assurances from destination countries that the illegal aliens being removed there will be safe.”

Nnamdi, for his part, was not given proper notice that he was being deported to Ghana, according to his lawyer, Julie Justice.

“It really felt like a dream. It’s something I wish never happened because I could not reconcile the fact that I am far removed from my family,” he said. “I kept saying, ‘Where is this? What is this?’”

Thousands of miles from his children, in an alien country, Nnamdi has built a solitary life around the Christian community that has taken him in. He sees his children on video calls before they leave for school, and again on weekends when they are home — a small but regular connection to the family he longs to be with.

The Trump administration has long stated it is after “the worst of the worst” in its heavy-handed immigration crackdown. Nnamdi is a pastor, a father of five — two of his daughters being U.S. citizens — and has spent the past five years working full time, and legally, having been granted employment authorization, for UPS. He has no criminal record.

Originally from Nigeria, he arrived in the United States in 2018, seeking a safe haven for his family after he said gunmen stormed his home and threatened to kill him if he continued preaching.

“Somebody will say, ‘But why America?’ Right? Because America is that great nation that is accommodating to people,” he said. “America is that great nation that protects people. America is that great nation where a nobody can turn out to become somebody of importance.”

The growing persecution of Christians in Nigeria is an issue the Trump administration has repeatedly drawn attention to. In October 2025, the Trump administration designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” over religious-freedom concerns before carrying out strikes on Boko Haram and Islamic State targets on Christmas Day.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has separately pushed legislation aimed at addressing the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, but did not respond to MS NOW’s repeated requests for comment. 

Nnamdi entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and, according to Justice, sought asylum after arriving. 

“I think it’s important just to show that he has followed all of the steps. People come here, and they don’t always understand the law until you know they hire an attorney to assist them in the process. But Samuel has done everything to follow the law and to abide by the law,” said Justice.

In 2019, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Nnamdi could face grave danger if he were returned to Nigeria, and granted him what is known as “withholding of removal,” which bars the government from deporting him there.

But the protection came with an important limitation: It did not prevent the government from sending him to another country.

On July 6, Nnamdi was arrested on his way to work, while wearing his UPS uniform. The brown shirt and shorts, instantly recognizable to generations of Americans, were the only clothes he had when he was ultimately deported to Ghana.

“This [UPS] shield is loved by everybody — the dogs love us, the cats love us, the American people love us. We are loved by everybody. Imagine being cuffed and brought into the detention facility [wearing this],” he said.

Several other deportees who were sent to Ghana and who spoke to MS NOW remotely described difficult conditions aboard the hourslong deportation flights — their hands and feet shackled, and in some cases deprived of important medication.

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson told MS NOW, “On August 29, 2018, Nnamdi attempted to enter the U.S. as a visitor at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and processed as an expedited removal after admitting his intention of overstaying his lawful admittance.”

Under U.S. asylum law, a person must be physically present in the U.S. to apply for asylum.

In a statement to MS NOW, a White House spokesperson said, “Third country agreements are helping close one of the loopholes in our immigration system that has far too often been abused with false claims.”

“If an illegal alien chooses to file a claim in court refusing to go to their home country, they should not be surprised when we find a safe and secure nation for them to go to. If an illegal alien chooses to go home, we will give them a free flight home and a $3,000 check. The choice is theirs,” the DHS spokesperson added.

While DHS argues it is finding “safe and secure nations” for deportees to go to, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a Ghanaian lawyer who has represented deportees and has been involved in legal efforts to prevent third-country deportations, told MS NOW many of those sent to Ghana are then forced back to their country of origin, where many fear they could be killed or persecuted — a practice known as refoulement, prohibited under international law.

One of those deportees was Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a 58-year-old nurse from Sierra Leone who was sent from Maryland to Ghana before being forcibly returned to the country she had fled.

Video, filmed by other deportees and shared with MS NOW, shows Kuyateh being dragged through a hotel in Accra by Ghanaian officials, and forced back to her native Sierra Leone, where a U.S. judge had ruled her life would be at risk. She left Sierra Leone as soon as she could and is now living in hiding in an undisclosed location in Africa. 

“They said they’re taking me to Ghana. I said, ‘Ghana, what am I going to do there?’ I thought they told me I was going home.”

Like Nnamdi, Kuyateh had been granted withholding of removal to her native Sierra Leone. She had spent more than 30 years working as a nurse in the U.S., even putting her own life on the line, working throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I made phone calls telling their loved ones that this is the end. I made sure I stood by them till they took their last breath,” she said. “I worked so hard, and I felt America didn’t pay me back like what I did to them. Especially after I considered that my second home. I went there when I was very young. I wasn’t treated right.”

Other deportees told MS NOW they were taken to the Togo border upon arrival and dumped there with no documents. Ghanaian officials reject allegations of refoulement and that the U.S. is using Ghana to circumvent its own courts.

“We don’t engage in forced migration as a policy, and we don’t do the dirty work of any country, no matter their status, their size or their wealth. That must be placed on record,” said Felix Kwakye Ofosu, spokesperson for the president of Ghana and minister of state in charge of communications.

Ofosu admitted deportees can only stay in Ghana for 90 days, and “after that, they have to go back,” but said those who can demonstrate returning to their countries of origin would put them at risk can apply for refugee status in Ghana.

“If we have verified reports of abuses on the part of Ghanaian security officials, we’ll look into them and take appropriate measures. But as far as I know, the people who have been brought in have been treated humanely, and there is no official policy to mistreat them or violate their rights,” he said, adding that the government was investigating the video featuring Kuyateh.

Ghana’s foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has acknowledged on local television that U.S. officials raised the possibility of visa and tariff concessions in exchange for Ghana’s cooperation on immigration. Weeks later, Washington lifted visa restrictions on Ghana, restoring five-year multiple-entry visas for Ghanaians. 

Through his faith, Nnamdi told MS NOW he remains hopeful U.S. officials will bring him back. Overnight, his wife was forced to become the sole breadwinner of the household. The family has created a GoFundMe page to help keep them afloat.

He remains firm in his belief that his deportation was a mistake the president will ultimately rectify.

“I believe in the American dream. I believe in the American people. I believe that anyone who will hear this, they will be rooting for me. Will stand up for me,” he said.

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From MS Now.