EMERGENCY FACT SHEET
* PASTOR STEVEN TENDO, Applicant for Political Asylum
* Originally from Uganda
* Date of birth: November 24, 1984
* A-number: 201-520-012
* Kidnapped by ICE, Wednesday, February 4, 2026, Burlington, VT
* Imprisoned at Stafford County Detention Center, Dover, NH
SUMMARY:
Steven Tendo is a respected Pastor from Uganda who suffered grave political persecution and repeated torture at the hands of government officials of his birth nation. In 2018, he presented himself legally at the United States Port of Entry in Brownsville, Texas, to request political asylum. As set forth below, he then suffered more than two years in an ICE detention facility without adequate medical care, resulting in grave harm to his health. (For details, listen to the audio of Crossing the Line, Chapter 29, Locked Up.)
Steven was released in 2021 and moved to Vermont, where he resumed his work as a pastor. Despite substantial errors by the Immigration Judge, his initial petition for asylum was denied, and his appeal was unsuccessful. In November 2025, he filed a Motion to Reopen, now pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), based on the grim changes of circumstances in Uganda and his own continuing activism. He has attended all required hearings and appearances since his release. He was nevertheless apprehended by ICE at his place of work and detained on February 4, 2026.
Returning Pastor Steven to Uganda shocks the conscience and violates the Convention Against Torture. We ask that Pastor Steven Tendo not be deported until the BIA has ruled upon his Motion to Reopen. We also ask that he be released from detention to guarantee his medical well-being.
BACKGROUND:
Pastor Stephen Tendo was born to a powerful family in Uganda and raised with the belief that he must serve his people. He received an excellent education and became a pastor, founding the very popular Eternal Life Organization International Ministries church. Steven organized community support projects, providing food, health services, and educational assistance to the needy. As the government repression and corruption grew in his homeland, he began a human rights campaign as well, assisting political prisoners and leading a voting rights effort.
His work intersected with reform efforts by presidential candidate Bobi Wine, who has also been subjected to extreme persecution by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Museveni has ruled the country with an increasingly iron fist for 40 years.
The first time Museveni’s goons apprehended Pastor Steven, they tortured him, severing two of his fingers. He was arrested, beaten, and tortured as many as twelve more times. He was also repeatedly subjected to false charges of fraud, but was acquitted by the Ugandan courts of each and every claim. After attacks on him and his relatives intensified, he was forced to flee Uganda in 2018.
Upon arrival in the United States, Pastor Tendo was promptly detained at ICE’s notoriously brutal Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC) in Los Fresnos, Texas. Like so many single African men, he was denied bail despite being a lifelong sufferer of diabetes, having no criminal record, and enjoying many offers of support. His medications and glucometer were immediately taken away, and he went without adequate checks or treatment throughout his two years incarcerated at PIDC. This led to dangerously high blood sugar levels and blindness in one eye from diabetic related cataracts. He also became extremely dizzy and ill and began to suffer from very high blood pressure and repeated and painful boils across his body. Even when COVID broke out and swiftly spread to the detention facility, he was denied release despite his medical vulnerability. At this point, there was a strong outcry from the human rights community, and Amnesty International initiated a campaign for his release. On August 18, 2020, some 44 members of Congress signed a letter to the Director of DHS protesting his mistreatment and continued confinement.
In 2020, ICE sought to deport Pastor Tendo regardless of his pending appeal to the Fifth Circuit of the denial of asylum. Although former ICE Director Pham agreed in September 2020 to stay the removal of Pastor Steven until such an appellate ruling, efforts were made to deport him in the middle of the night nonetheless.
He was finally released from detention in 2021 and was able to move to Vermont. With the help of friends and supporters there, he began to heal and resumed work as a chaplain. He attended nursing classes, becoming a Licensed Nursing Assistant, and was working toward a Registered Nurse qualification when abducted by ICE. He has also worked with local youth to help them combat substance abuse and addiction. He is a genuinely fine human being and should be celebrated as an asset to any nation. He enjoys a network of very close community ties in Burlington. Yet, he has not forgotten his homeland. He remains outspoken about the situation in Uganda, and recently gave testimony to attorneys working on a case before the International Criminal Court.
We are gravely concerned that, given the current turbulent political situation in the US, Pastor Steven Tendo could be whisked back to Uganda with little or no notice if he remains detained by ICE. A Ugandan official has made it clear that if this happens, he will be seized as he leaves the plane and killed. He will never arrive at customs.
CALL TO ACTION:
* Please contact your members of Congress today. The Congressional Switchboard operator, (202) 224-3121, will connect you to your Senate and House Representatives.
* Tell them that Pastor Steven Tendo is at great risk of torture and extrajudicial execution if he is returned to Uganda. This is a violation of his human rights and an international crime known as refoulement.
* Tell them he is also at great risk of medical harm and improper processing while in ICE detention. And that we urgently seek their assistance to demand his release.
FOR ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Listen to Steven and my story collaboration. Click the play button above ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼.
FOR ADDITIONAL LEGAL INFORMATION:
Contact: Brett Stokes, Center for Justice Reform Clinic, Vermont Law and Graduate School, 802-831-1104; Chrispher Worth, Center for Justice Reform Clinic, Vermont Law and Graduate School, 802-831-1104; Elizabeth Velez, Orr & Reno, 603-223-9171; Christina Thomas, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton,404-815-6531; Fatma Marouf, Texas A&M Legal Clinic, 817-212-4123
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