Trump deported a transgender woman to Central Africa. She says she has to hide to survive

A transgender woman deported to the Central African Republic says she has been housed in a government complex set aside for men, and that she has been living in fear of expressing her gender identity.The Associated Press reports that the Trump administration deported Daniela Fuentes to the Central African Republic in August. For Fuentes, a Cuban immigrant who had worked in Miami as a hairstylist and drag performer, the country was completely unfamiliar.“Everything is difficult here because I have to hide who I am,” Fuentes, 32, told the AP. “I don’t know this place, the people, or the language. I have no idea what will happen to me.”Related: U.S. deports gay asylum seeker to country where homosexuality is illegalThe Central African Republic is one of at least 12 African countries that signed agreements with the Trump administration to take deportees from other countries. The United States Supreme Court upheld that policy last month.Third-country deportations, which are new under Trump’s second term, present particular risks for LGBTQ+ immigrants, who may be deported to countries that lack protections for LGBTQ+ individuals, or outright criminalize LGBTQ+ identity. The Central African Republic, for example, lacks legal protections for LGBTQ+ people and has even imposed prison sentences for public displays of affection between people of the same gender.The Trump administration has deported more than 25,000 people across 29 countries to which they have no ties, according to Third Country Deportation Watch, a project by the organizations Refugees International and Human Rights First.Fuentes moved to the U.S. under the Biden administration through a humanitarian-grounds immigration policy, the AP writes. She was detained by immigration authorities this year and sent to an immigration facility for men. “When I learned that they were going to put me with men, I almost fainted,” she said.Related: LGBTQ+ migrants sought safety in the U.S. Trump sent them to d