Nicaraguan activist Yadira Córdoba, detained in Texas, is pleading for deportation to any country except Nicaragua to regain her freedom. Her political asylum request was denied, and she faces uncertainty after Honduras refused to accept her.
Yadira Córdoba, a member of the April Mothers Association (AMA), remains confined in a migrant detention center in San Antonio, Texas. She arrived in the United States in 2023 fleeing political violence in Nicaragua after the murder of her son Orlando Córdoba, aged 15, during a 2018 protest. After entering the country, she applied for political asylum but was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on August 20, 2025.
A U.S. immigration judge in Texas rejected her asylum request in early November 2025 and ordered her deportation to Honduras. However, the Honduran government refused to accept her. In an audio recording obtained by Confidencial, Córdoba denounces delays by U.S. authorities. “They told me I would be deported to Honduras, but that country refused. I told them to take me wherever, but to give me my freedom. They are violating my rights, because they tell me one thing today and something else tomorrow, and they don’t take me out,” she states.
“I can’t return to Nicaragua, but I also can’t remain imprisoned,” Córdoba insists, adding: “I came to this country looking for protection and freedom.” Her son Ronald Córdoba, in an interview with Confidencial, hopes his mother will be sent to a safe country, not Nicaragua, to avoid transnational repression from the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. He describes the asylum trial as “very emotionally difficult,” as it forces her to relive the trauma. “This process has not been easy. It is very hard to reopen my wounds and remember everything I have lived through because of a murderous government,” Córdoba said during the hearing, according to her son.
The family fears Córdoba would become an “easy target” if returned to Nicaragua. She has “already paid” for entering without papers and urges release, even to Mexico.
