U.S. Fast-Tracked Deportation of Ecuadorean Politician José Serrano Despite Torture Fears

The Trump administration fast-tracked the deportation of José Serrano, Ecuador’s former interior minister and a critic of President Daniel Noboa, after three Trump-appointed immigration appeals judges overruled a Miami immigration judge who had found he would likely be tortured if returned to Ecuador. Serrano was arrested by ICE in Miami days after then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with Noboa, and was deported on August 29, 2026. Ecuador has charged him in connection with the 2023 assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, and he is now held in El Encuentro, a maximum-security prison. His lawyers say masked guards photographed and filmed him naked, which Ecuadorean officials deny; DHS has said it “does not conduct immigration enforcement on behalf of foreign political interests.”