ICE deports Venezuelan father from Texas to West Africa: A situation “I don’t wish on anybody”

Updated on: August 29, 2026 / 10:01 AM EDT / CBS News

A 35-year-old Venezuelan man who lived in Texas for years is now nearly 6,000 miles from his wife and 5-month-old American son after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to West Africa.

Carlos Tellez Sanchez said he had never heard of Liberia until last week, when he found out he was being deported to the country that sits between Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire just hours before his flight took off. He said he spent the 15-hour flight across the Atlantic in handcuffs, and is now stranded in a remote area of the West African nation.

"I do not understand how a country that considers itself a global hero can act this way towards a human being," he told CBS News in Spanish over a video call.

Tellez Sanchez said he now spends much of his time inside a hotel more than an hour away from Monrovia, Liberia's capital, where he was placed alongside deportees from Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and other countries.

President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration has intensified this summer, with ICE making a record number of arrests. Increasingly, some detainees are being sent to…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/