Steven Tendo, a refugee from Uganda seeking political asylum in the U.S., speaks with supporters after receiving a letter announcing a year-long stay of his deportation in St. Albans on Nov. 15, 2022. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerSteven Tendo has heard from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Vermont before — but he certainly was not expecting to hear from them last week. Tendo, a Ugandan asylee living in Colchester, received a letter on Friday ordering him to report to ICE’s office in St. Albans on Tuesday morning to meet with a deportation officer. The timing shook him, he said. He wasn’t expecting to check-in with the agency, as he’s periodically required to do, until November. But now, he will find himself facing immigration officers again, the day after President Donald Trump — who has promised to conduct a sweeping deportation campaign — was again sworn into office. Tendo fled his native country in 2018 and applied for asylum protection in the U.S. He fought his case in the immigration court system for years, though his application was ultimately denied, meaning federal officials could remove him from the country. In Uganda, Tendo was brutally tortured and members of his family were killed because government forces there viewed an advocacy organization he founded as a political threat, according to U.S. federal court records and Tendo’s own past accounts. He described in an interview Sunday what he thinks will happen if he’s sent back.“It’s a death sentence,” said Tendo, whose plight has drawn support in recent years from international human rights groups and dozens of members of Congress.“When I received the letter, it was a shock,” Tendo continued. “I didn’t know what to make of it — but I just knew that they may want to try to remove me.” Tendo was nearly deported while in ICE custody in Texas in 2020, though the agency granted him a reprieve amid pressure from advocates and members of Congress, later releasing him in early 2021 on a condition called humanitarian parole. He faced possible deportation again in 2022 after moving to Vermont, but agency leaders granted a request by his lawyers to hold off on deporting him for at least another year. Fatma Marouf — director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Texas A&M University’s School of Law, who has been representing Tendo — said that the timing of ICE’s recent letter is troubling. It’s difficult to say, with certainty, whether the timing has anything to do with Trump taking office, she said on Sunday, noting she has not personally heard of a mass of similar notices going out to people in Vermont or in other states. Still, Marouf said, “we wouldn’t expect” Tendo to have to contact ICE this early in 2025, noting that Tendo’s last check-in with the agency was in November 2024. Tendo had accidentally checked in a month early, she said — November instead of December — but the agency nevertheless told him he wasn’t due back until November 2025. It’s possible that an administrative snafu related to that timing prompted the request for Tuesday’s meeting, Marouf acknowledged, though she remains concerned.All non-U.S. citizens who face potential deportation have to check in with ICE at least once per year, even if immigration officials don’t plan to detain them at that point.Another one of Tendo’s attorneys — Brett Stokes, director of Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Center for Justice Reform Clinic, which provides pro bono immigration law services — said that he wasn’t aware of an uptick in such notices either, though he said he would not be surprised if that changed in the coming weeks.“Do I expect ICE to be sending out more of these letters? I absolutely do,” Stokes said in an interview Monday morning.READ MORE ‘A death sentence’: Deportation looms for Ugandan refugee living in Colchester by Shaun Robinson November 11, 2022, 11:07 amNovember 11, 2022, 11:07 am Marouf said that Tendo, who is 40, is “the last person we should be deporting.” Tendo has worked as a chaplain and nursing assistant at the University of Vermont Medical Center, which is now also sponsoring his training to become a fully licensed nurse. “He’s actively contributing to the community. He has a role here,” Marouf said. “There’s just no reason that he should be a target for deportation.” Since 2022, ICE officials have twice granted requests by Tendo’s lawyers to stay his deportation. The most recent request expired at the end of 2024, Marouf said, and she filed another request on Friday urging the feds to allow Tendo to stay in the country.ICE did not respond to a Sunday request for comment on Tendo’s case or to a question about whether the timing of its recent letter was related to the change in U.S. presidential administrations. (To be sure, deportations reached a 10-year high in 2024 under former President Joe Biden’s administration, ICE data shows.)Tendo’s most recent request — which Marouf said the agency is unlikely to be able to weigh in on until Tuesday morning at the earliest — argues that Tendo should not be deported in part because he is currently suing the government over how, he alleges, he was mistreated while in ICE custody in Texas. Tendo has also said that the government allowed his health to deteriorate while in custody, an assertion underscored by members of Congress in an August 2020 letter urging ICE not to deport him.The lawsuit centers on ICE’s use of a full-body restraint device known as the WRAP. Tendo’s lawsuit is likely far from over, Marouf noted, with a federal judge partially rejecting the government’s request to dismiss the case entirely last year. Marouf said Tendo also needs to stay in the U.S. to access crucial medical care for health issues, including with his eyesight, his teeth and with managing diabetes.At the same time, Tendo’s lawyers are also working on a request to U.S. officials to  reconsider his application for asylum on the basis that conditions in Uganda have become even more dangerous for Tendo as of late. “The government continues — and, in fact, has increased — its repression of National Unity (Platform) members,” Stokes said, referring to the political party Tendo is affiliated with and for which he has been organizing from his home in Colchester.If ICE decides to grant Tendo’s lawyers’ latest request to stay his deportation, the decision could be valid for up to another year, according to Marouf. Tendo, for his part, said he’s gathering a group of supporters — including from the church in Colchester where he serves as a volunteer — to accompany him to the ICE office on Tuesday morning. His check-in is scheduled for 10 a.m. Religion has been central to Tendo’s life in the U.S. and in Uganda. In addition to his work at the hospital, Tendo runs an organization called Eternal Life Organization International Ministries that provides social services in both countries. He’s in the process of obtaining a license to serve as a pastor in the U.S., he said — noting he was expecting to attend an interview for the licensing process this week. “I am very, very scared,” he said in a call Sunday morning. “My mind is frozen right now. I don’t know what to say.” Tendo noted that he had to be off the phone in a few minutes. “I’m going to go to church — and pray,” he said.Read the story on VTDigger here: Colchester asylum-seeker fears deportation as feds order him to report the day after Donald Trump takes office.