60 Minutes aired a segment Sunday about Moussa Diawara, a 57-year-old Mali native and Uber driver from the Houston area, who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years and had no criminal record. Diawara told the CBS program that he was deported “without being able to speak to his lawyer or a judge.”
According to the segment, a U.S. immigration judge ruled in 2012 that Diawara could not be deported to Mali, where he would likely face persecution. On July 11, 2026, ICE arrested him and later flew him to Ghana, a country he’d never visited.
“I cannot call my wife; I can’t contact my lawyer. I can’t talk to no one,” Diawara told the program. “I tell them, ‘This is kidnapping. You guys kidnapped us.’” He says Ghanaian officials forced him onto a flight to Mali within days, where he was homeless and went into hiding.
60 Minutes, which said it obtained DHS-issued bag tags from Diawara’s flight listing Mali as the destination, interviewed immigration attorney Meredyth Yoon, who said: “They sent him to Ghana, with full knowledge that Ghana is systematically deporting refugees back to the very countries they fled.”
The Department of Homeland Security responded after the episode aired: “Diawara, who is married to a woman he shares 2 children with, oddly claimed he would be persecuted for homosexuality if returned home to Mali, and requested a withholding of removal from his home country. On July 30, he was removed from the United States to a country that provided diplomatic assurances for his safety.”
ICE wrote: “The 60 Minutes sob story tonight highlighted an illegal alien and his wife and two children. One problem. The illegal alien claimed he was a HOMOSEXUAL in order to try and dodge deportation to Mali. You literally cannot make this up.”
DHS General Counsel James Percival posted: “This illegal alien is @60Minutes poster child for what it claims are wrongful deportations. I pulled his file. His claimed reason for fearing Mali was that he is ‘gay,’ just in case you’re wondering how bad the immigration fraud problem is.”
On the program, Percival was asked about the paperwork. “He was flown to Ghana, but I can’t speak to why that piece of paper says that,” he said. DHS later called a medical form listing “SHRC Mali” a “clerical error” and said the bag tags were produced by contractors.
ICE added a broader defense: “60 Minutes wants to give criminals and fraudsters a free pass to roam American streets. It’s not going to happen. It’s simple: If you’re in the U.S. illegally, ICE is removing you. Whether to your home country or a third country, you’re leaving.”
[NOTE: 60 Minutes reported that Diawara’s fear of persecution centered on his conversion to Christianity in Mali. Diawara acknowledged the U.S. can deport him, but not to Mali. His lawyer has asked a federal judge in Washington to order his return. Ghana’s government declined to comment.]