Sometime in late 2024 or early 2025, a 27-year-old Iranian woman—whom we’ll call Maryam Rezaei for her safety—fled her home, fearing for her life. As a schoolteacher in Tehran, she had secretly converted to Christianity—a decision that, under Iran’s apostasy laws, is punishable by death. When members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard began interrogating a close friend and fellow convert, Maryam knew she had to escape. Leaving behind her family and career, she embarked on a perilous journey, aiming to seek asylum in the United States, a nation she believed championed religious freedom.
Upon reaching the U.S.-Mexico border in California on February 10, 2025, Maryam surrendered herself to immigration officials, pleading for asylum. Contrary to her expectations, she was detained, shackled, and within days, placed on a military transport plane alongside nearly 300 other migrants. Their destination was not disclosed to them. It was only upon landing that Maryam realized she had been deported to Panama—a country with which she had no prior connection.
How the U.S. Fast-Tracks Deportations
The abrupt deportation was a direct result of an agreement between the U.S. and Panama, signed in July 2024, wherein the U.S. would assist Panama in deporting foreign nationals who lacked legal status. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, funded by the Department of State, provided financial and logistical support for these deportations. The program aimed to address irregular migration through the Darién region, a treacherous jungle corridor that had seen over half a million migrants transit in 2023.
Upon arrival in Panama City, Maryam and the other deportees were confined to the Decapolis Hotel under strict supervision. Reports indicate that approximately 40% of these migrants were unwilling to return to their countries of origin, displaying signs in their hotel windows pleading for assistance. Despite their protests, Panamanian authorities, with financial backing from the U.S., began processing their repatriation.
By mid-February, a significant number of these migrants, including Maryam, were relocated to a refugee camp in the Darién province, a remote and dense jungle area notorious for its harsh conditions and lawlessness. Human rights organizations have criticized this move, highlighting the dangers and lack of adequate facilities in the region. Many of these migrants, like Maryam, faced severe persecution or even death if returned to their home countries, placing them in a precarious legal and humanitarian limbo.
A System That Fails the Most Vulnerable
Maryam’s story is not unique. Thousands of asylum seekers fleeing religious persecution—many of them Christians—have found themselves trapped in an increasingly hostile U.S. immigration system. Policies designed to fast-track deportations have stripped many of the ability to even make their case before a judge. According to The New York Times, faith-based refugee organizations have raised alarms about the dramatic decline in Christian asylum approvals in recent years, noting that cases like Maryam’s reflect a broader shift in U.S. policy from protection to rejection.
“This is not just a policy failure; it’s a moral failure,” said one refugee advocate quoted in The New York Times. “When someone flees persecution for their faith, they should not be shackled and thrown onto a military plane. They should be protected. The U.S. has long been a beacon of religious freedom, but cases like this show that we are failing that mission.”
Matthew Soerens, U.S. Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief, highlighted the reality many refugees face.
“Across the whole country last year, 30,000 of the 100,000 refugees resettled in the U.S. were Christians fleeing persecution. Countries like Iran, Burma, Iraq, and Syria are among the worst for religious persecution.”
He stressed that while refugee resettlement has long been a bipartisan issue, recent policy changes have made it harder for persecuted Christians to find safety in the U.S. He also emphasized that many Christians fail to see the direct impact these policies have on persecuted believers.
“If the U.S. government won’t stand up for them, the church must.”
A Test of America’s Commitment to Religious Freedom
Maryam’s plight raises urgent questions about the U.S. government’s treatment of Christian refugees and whether the nation’s commitment to religious freedom extends beyond rhetoric. While many conservative leaders have spoken at length about the persecution of Christians abroad, their silence on cases like Maryam’s has been deafening.
“The reputation of a lot of Christians right now is that they are ambivalent to immigrants or even hostile,” Soerens said. “I genuinely do not think that is true of the majority of Christians. But if we’re not willing to speak up and do something when things like this happen, it plays into that stereotype.”
Soerens theory is right—a recent Lifeway Research survey found that 70 of Christians believe the U.S. has a moral obligation to accept refugees.
The fundamental principle of asylum is that those fleeing persecution should not be sent back to the danger they escaped. Yet Maryam now faces an impossible situation—unable to return to Iran, unsafe where she has been sent, and abandoned by the country she believed would offer refuge.
As faith-based organizations scramble to find ways to help, her future remains uncertain. But one thing is clear: her case is a damning indictment of a system that has failed the very people it claims to protect.
Maryam was a teacher. She believed in Jesus. She sought safety in a country that claimed to defend religious freedom. Instead, she was cast out into the jungle, alone.
