00:01Ex-convict P. Rom had spent years in the U.S. before ending up detained in Eswatini.
00:06He was among 10 men deported as part of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, flown out last October, under heavy guard.
00:14Months later, Rom still remains unsure why he was sent here.
00:19I didn't understand why I was being deported to Africa.
00:25And I was like, you know, I don't even have no ties with Africa.
00:29Like, why am I being deported to Africa?
00:31Like, you know, I didn't understand at the time.
00:33So I requested a fair interview with ICE.
00:36I said I refused to get on a plane and I would like to request a fair interview to challenge,
00:41you know, because I'm scared to go to Africa.
00:45I don't have, I've never been to Africa.
00:49And they deny me.
00:52Some have likened the contested deportation scheme to human trafficking.
00:56Rom says life here was difficult at first.
01:03The first two months, it was rough because, you know, they, they still looked at us as we were criminals
01:12because of what the administration was portraying us to be.
01:16Oh, these guys are this, these guys are that.
01:18They are heinous criminals in the United States.
01:22But what they're not telling them was these guys, yes, they commit, they got convicted of a crime, but they
01:30served their time.
01:31They didn't tell them that, you know.
01:33So the Eswatini people was looking at us like we were still, you know, criminals.
01:40Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, had agreed to take deportees under a U.S. deal.
01:46But Rom had been living in the U.S. as a permanent resident since 1985.
01:50Thank you very much.
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