C., a 36-year-old Venezuelan man who had lived and worked legally in the U.S. for five years under a withholding of removal protection, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in at an immigration office in December 2025. He was held for eight months across nine different detention centers before being placed on a charter flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Liberia on August 19, 2026, missing the birth of his son, who was born while he was in custody. He says he fled Venezuela in 2021 as a political opponent facing threats to his life.