More than 13,000 people were living legally in the United States, waiting for rulings on asylum claims, when they received deportation orders to countries they had never been to and had no ties to. An Afghan man who fled the Taliban was told he would be sent to Uganda. A Cuban woman working at a Texas Chick-fil-A was arrested after a minor traffic accident and told she was going to Ecuador. A Mauritanian man in Michigan - Uganda. A Venezuelan mother in Ohio - Ecuador. Bolivians, Ecuadorians, and others ordered to Honduras. A Guatemalan woman who had been held captive, repeatedly sexually assaulted, and arrived at the border with her four-year-old daughter - pregnant from a rape - sat in a San Francisco immigration courtroom and heard an ICE attorney say she would be sent to Ecuador, Honduras, or Uganda. She had never heard of Ecuador or Uganda. The diplomatic agreement with Honduras allows a maximum of 10 such deportees per month. Thousands have been ordered to Honduras. The Ugandan minister of state for foreign affairs confirmed to the AP that none of the people ordered to Uganda have actually arrived. In March, ICE legal officials quietly emailed field attorneys to stop filing new motions for third-country deportations. No explanation. Not publicly released. The earlier orders are still in effect. These 13,000 people have lost their work authorization. They cannot pursue their asylum claims. They cannot find out if they will be put on a plane to a country they have never seen. A senior attorney at the National Immigration Law Center told the AP directly: the goal is to instill fear. To drive people to abandon their cases and leave on their own. That is a documented assessment of the purpose. The limbo is the policy.