White House officials have accused a Malian father featured on 60 Minutes of falsely claiming to be gay in an effort to remain illegally in the United States.
Moussa Diawara, 57, was deported from Texas to Ghana on July 30 after spending more than 20 years in the US. During that time, he married and raised two children in Houston.
Diawara has no criminal record, but the Trump administration moved to enforce a deportation order issued earlier this year. Officials said he had overstayed a tourist visa obtained when he was 32.
He later sought refugee protection, arguing that he would face persecution if returned to Mali. An immigration judge agreed that he could be at risk, but ruled that he should instead be deported to Ghana, a country with which he has no known connection.
Within days of his arrival in Mali, Diawara claims that he was then forced onto a flight to Ghana, and he has been left trying to get back to his family in Texas, who told of their anguish to 60 Minutes.
The CBS News program aired an emotional report this week featuring Diawara’s 16-year-old son, Corey, who described feeling “empty” without his father.
After the broadcast, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, claimed that Diawara’s fear of persecution in Mali was based on an assertion that he was homosexual—even though he was married to a woman and had children.
“You literally cannot make this up,” ICE wrote in a post on X.
Moussa Diawara, 57, from Mali, was deported from Texas on July 30 after spending more than two decades in the US. Authorities said he had overstayed a tourist visa before building a family in Houston
Diawara’s wife and two children, who are US citizens, appeared in an emotional 60 Minutes report about his deportation
After the 60 Minutes broadcast, the Trump administration alleged that the married father had claimed to be homosexual in applications seeking permission to remain in the US
Several Trump administration accounts criticized the 60 Minutes report on social media Sunday. James Percival, general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, described the case as an example of what he called widespread fraud in the US immigration system.
“This illegal alien is 60 Minutes’ poster child for what it claims are wrongful deportations,” Percival wrote on X.
“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.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Bryan Kohberger’s ‘Passionate’ Prison Calls Amid New Bid for Freedom
The Department of Homeland Security also said Diawara had been ordered removed from the US as early as February 2012, but allegedly remained in the country illegally for another 14 years.
An immigration judge had ruled that, if Diawara were deported, he could be sent to a “safe alternative” country rather than Mali.
That ruling nevertheless enabled Diawara to obtain a US work permit. He later worked as an Uber driver, CBS News reported.
Diawara said he had just finished a late-night shift on July 11 this year when ICE agents were waiting outside his Houston home.
He spent the next three weeks in ICE detention in Texas and claimed he was unable to speak with his lawyer or appear before a judge before being deported to Ghana.
The Trump administration said it proceeded with Diawara’s deportation after an earlier order required his removal from the US as far back as February 2012. Officials alleged that he nevertheless remained in the country illegally for another 14 years
Diawara said he has been left stranded in Africa and fighting to get back to his family in Texas
He said in Ghana, a country he had no ties to and had never visited, Diawara said he and other deportees were held in a hotel by armed guards, and they were not able to call the outside world to tell loved ones where they were.
‘I cannot call my wife, I can’t contact my lawyer. I can’t talk to no one,’ Diawara told CBS. ‘I tell them, ‘This is kidnapping. You guys kidnapped us.”
60 Minutes said it found Diawara homeless and hiding in Mali in August, before he was able to escape to another country with the help of local truckers.
Diawara told the outlet that while he acknowledges the US had the right to deport him, he feels it was wrong to send him to Mali, and said he believes US authorities knew Ghana would send him there.
The DHS said Ghana provided the US with ‘diplomatic assurances’ that Diawara would be safe before he was sent there.
The Daily Mail has contacted CBS News for comment on the Trump administration’s response to its 60 Minutes show.