Hundreds rally to free Iowa City mother seized by ICE and facing third-country deportation; Miller-Meeks asks for stay from DHS

Early last Thursday morning, ICE agents seized a longtime Iowa City resident as she was preparing to drive to work with her sister. Fatou Traore came to the United States in 2005 from the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), a West African nation. In 2011, an immigration court judge granted her an order of withholding of removal, which permits her to legally live in the country and work. The same order covers her husband, Oumar Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea.

The couple have raised their family in Iowa City. They have four sons. The oldest, Esoumaila, is 19 and a City High graduate. The youngest, Yousouf, is 3. All their sons are American citizens. 

Traore works at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She has never committed a crime nor been accused of committing one. Not in the United States. Not in the Ivory Coast. 

Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security has explained why Traore was arrested and sent to a jail in northeast Louisiana. An ICE agent told Traore they have an order of final removal for her and she is scheduled to be deported next week to Sierra Leone, a West African country to which she has no connections.

Standing in front of the altar of First United Methodist Church in downtown Iowa City on Wednesday night, Esoumaila told the people sitting in the church’s pews about the impact ICE seizing his mother has had on him and his brothers. 

“The kids are asking about her, and I don’t have answers,” he said. “All I can do is tell them stay strong, your mom will be home soon.” 

“It’s really hard on me, too, but I try my best not to show that. Because I have people to stay strong for.”

Esoumaila was one of several speakers at the Bring Fatou Home rally organized by Escucha Mi Voz Iowa and the Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County. It was originally planned to take place on the Ped Mall, but changed due to rain. The rain, however, did not stop hundreds from coming to the church for the rally.

Esoumaila spoke with great composure as he related what happened to his mother. He started the story the day before ICE seized Traore.

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, Esoumaila was driving home after classes at Kirkwood Community College when he noticed two black cars following him. The cars were unmarked, and he assumed the occupants were just going the same way he was, probably to visit someone in the neighborhood. 

Esoumaila pulled into the driveway at his family’s home. The cars pulled in behind him, blocking him in. The men got out of their cars and walked up to his. Esoumaila rolled down his window to speak to them. 

“They asked me, ‘Is this your mom’s car?’” he recalled. Then they asked him where his mother was. 

“They said they wanted to talk to her.” He told them she wasn’t home.

“I asked them if there’s a problem I can help with.” They didn’t answer. They walked slowly away, got in their cars and drove off. 

Esoumaila was confused. He thought maybe they had noticed something wrong with his car, or maybe he had done something wrong driving home from Kirkwood. As he stood outside trying to figure out what just happened, he saw the cars drive past his house again. 

Esoumaila went inside. Still unsure what happened, he didn’t mention the incident.

“The next day my mom woke up, and took my little brother to Iowa City High School for early morning soccer practice,” he continued. “And then she came back to pick up my aunt who lives around the block.”

Haby Diallo was still inside her house when she saw two cars pull up and block in Traore’s vehicle at approximately 6:30 a.m. Two men in plain clothes got out of the cars, did not display any credentials and did not identify themselves. Diallo rushed out of the house, but one of the men blocked her path. The other knocked on the driver’s side window, and when Traore lowered it, he reached inside, opened the door and pulled her out.

Haby called Traore’s husband, who woke up Esoumaila. He ran to his aunt’s house. By the time he got there, the men and his mother were gone. Uncertain about what just happened, Esoumaila borrowed his aunt’s car and started looking for his mother. 

“I thought she was kidnapped, or taken by a bad person,” he said. “But I had no luck in finding my mom or whoever took her.”

Later that day, he got a phone call from his mother. She explained she’d been arrested by ICE and had been told she was being deported to Sierra Leone. 

“Hearing that was really hard,” Esoumaila said. 

He explained that his family and community members have been doing everything they can to stop the deportation and get his mother set free. Among their activities was contacting Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Rep. Ashley Hinson, asking them to intervene with ICE and DHS.  

Just before the rally started on Wednesday, organizers received a copy of a letter Miller-Meeks sent earlier that day to DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin.

“I am writing to respectfully ask for a stay of deportation for Fatou Traore, a constituent of mine and a valued member of the University of Iowa community,” the letter began. 

After briefly summarizing the facts of Traore’s case and pointing out that she has a valid withholding of removal order, Miller-Meeks wrote, “Deporting Fatou would deprive a young family of their mother and would violate the withholding of removal order, which allows Fatou to work and reside in the United States legally.”

Miller-Meeks has been contacted before by family members of people in her district who have been seized by ICE. She’s been willing to have her staff meet with those family members, but the three-term congresswoman, who is facing a difficult reelection race, has never before gone as far as this to help.

Rep. Hinson had not yet replied as of Wednesday evening. Contacting both representatives to make sure they act on Fatou Traore’s behalf was stressed by all the speakers at the rally.

After being seized by the ICE agents, Traore was briefly held in Cedar Rapids, where the ICE field office for the region is located. She was then moved to Hardin County Jail in Eldora, which has a contract with ICE to hold detainees, before being sent to Omaha, ICE’s regional headquarters, and then shipped to the Richwood Correctional Center, an ICE detention center located in Monroe, Louisiana, and managed by LaSalle Corrections, a private prison corporation. 

Richwood is notorious for its poor conditions. On Thursday morning, ICE announced in a press release that Julian Curo-Churata, a 47-year-old detainee from Peru who had been imprisoned at Richwood for three months, had died. No cause of death was given. At least 66 other immigrants have died in one of ICE’s detention centers since President Trump returned to office in January 2025. 

Traore’s withholding of removal order stops ICE from deporting her to the Ivory Coast. Those orders are granted by immigration judges after a person demonstrates they face a risk of death, injury or persecution if they are returned to their home country. That is why ICE is trying to deport Traore to Sierra Leone.

Before the second Trump administration, third-country deportations were relatively rare, and usually reserved for extreme cases. The Trump administration has embraced it as a way to circumvent valid legal restrictions in its effort to greatly increase the number of people it is deporting. Reports of inhumane treatment of deportees in the third countries the U.S. is paying to take them has done nothing to dissuade the administration from increasing its use of this tactic.

“I cannot accept that we would send someone to an unfamiliar country and leave safety as somebody else’s problem,” Mazahir Salih said when she spoke at the rally. “I cannot accept that a family continues to be separated without even those responsible blinking an eye.”

Salih is the director of the Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County, and a member of the Iowa City Council. She immigrated to the United States in 1997 from Sudan, and became a citizen. When she won her seat on the city council for the first time in 2017, Salih made history as the first Sudanese-American elected to office. 

Reflecting on all the immigrant community in Iowa City has been through recently, Salih said, “We are exhausted. We are hurting. But we will continue to stand up for one another.”

Between the speeches at the 40-minute rally, attendees chanted, “Bring Fatou home.”

“Tonight, people of different faiths and traditions and political convictions can share one clear purpose,” Rev. Heecheon Jeon, lead pastor at First United Methodist, said when he came to the microphone. “Bring Fatou home, and keep this family together.”