Ugandan activist living in Vermont gets deportation reprieve

By LISA RATHKE
Associated Press

ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) — Authorities in Vermont say a Ugandan activist who fled his country after he says he was tortured for his human rights work and would fear for his life if he was deported can stay another year. Earlier this week, 37-year-old Steven Tendo was granted a one-year stay on deportation or removal. He thanked the two dozen supporters and friends who gathered outside the immigration building. Tendo fled Uganda in late 2018 then spent more than two years in immigration detention in Texas where a judge denied him asylum. In 2020, 44 members of Congress wrote a letter to the acting Department of Homeland Security secretary requesting that Tendo’s deportation be halted and he be released for “life-threatening medical reasons.”