ICE temporarily releases man facing deportation to Congo amid Ebola outbreak

U.S. ICE temporarily releases South American man it had planned to deport to Congo amid Ebola outbreak By Julia Ingram Julia Ingram Data Journalist Julia Ingram is a data journalist for CBS News Confirmed. She uses data analysis and computation to cover misinformation, AI and social media. Read Full Bio Julia Ingram May 29, 2026 / 5:13 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Immigration and Customs Enforcement has temporarily released Jose Yugar-Cruz, a South American man who had been awaiting deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo, his attorneys said Friday.Yugar-Cruz was first detained after crossing the border in July 2024. Six months later, an immigration judge ruled he was more likely than not to face torture in his home country and could not be sent back there. ICE continued to detain him until late December 2025, when a federal judge ruled his detention was unlawful, but he was arrested again in April after Congo agreed to accept him. On May 17, Yugar-Cruz was still detained in an Iowa jail when the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda a health emergency. As of Wednesday, there were more than 1,000 suspected or confirmed cases and over 240 suspected or confirmed deaths, according to the WHO. "Prior to the outbreak and despite protests in Minnesota and in Iowa, the Department of Homeland Security had refused to stop Yugar Cruz' deportation to the DRC or to consider relocation to another country and continent that would assure him a greater degree of safety as a victim of torture," his attorneys wrote in a press release. ICE did not respond to CBS News inquiries about Yugar-Cruz's release or about whether it is conducting any deportations to the DRC during the Ebola outbreak. Fifteen South Americans were deported to the DRC in mid-April, where they were sent to a hotel outside of Kinshasa, the capital city. Officials from the United Nations' migration agency told them they could either agree to...