Nearly a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and a group of eight deportees have been left stranded at a U.S. military base in Djibouti, East Africa, after a judge blocked their removal to South Sudan.
Federal officials, agents, and detainees are now confined in a makeshift detention center in a shipping container at Camp Lemonnier, facing risks from disease, extreme heat, poor air quality, and warnings of potential rocket attacks.
“ICE officers continue to feel ill with symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joints. These symptoms align with bacterial upper respiratory infection, but ICE officers are unable to obtain proper testing for a diagnosis,” Melissa Harper, acting deputy executive associate director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, wrote in a court filing.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, California, on July 8, 2019. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, California, on July 8, 2019. Gregory Bull
Why It Matters
The unusual scenario follows legal action by Massachusetts District Judge Brian Murphy, who barred ICE from deporting the group but allowed, at the Trump administration’s request, their temporary detention overseas.
The standoff in Djibouti highlights growing humanitarian concerns over U.S. immigration policy and the treatment of deportees.
“The use of shipping containers to detain people is heinous and enraging —and coupled with the extreme heat, disease, and threats of rocket attacks in Djibouti, can be deadly,” Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network said in a statement shared with Newsweek.
President Donald Trump has directed his administration to remove millions of undocumented immigrants as part of a hardline mass deportation policy.
What To Know
Eleven ICE agents, alongside two medical staff, escorted eight migrants aboard a deportation flight from Texas, intending to transfer them to South Sudan.
The migrants—individuals convicted of serious crimes from Cuba, Mexico, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar according to the Washington Post—were being expelled under a Trump-era policy targeting those convicted of serious offenses.
Massachusetts District Judge Brian Murphy allowed a request from government attorneys to temporarily hold a group of deportees in U.S. custody in Djibouti. The purpose was to provide the individuals with a “reasonable fear interview,” giving them an opportunity to present claims that they could face persecution or torture if sent to South Sudan. The judge did not mandate their transfer to Djibouti but approved the government’s proposed plan.
The Trump administration then requested permission to house deportees overseas while litigation continued.
Murphy granted this, allowing their detention at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, a U.S. naval installation, rather than ordering their return to U.S. soil.
ICE’s acting deputy executive associate director for ERO, Harper, described poor and unsafe conditions.
The eight detainees are confined in a converted shipping container used as a conference room. Officers share limited sleeping quarters—just six beds in a trailer—and have restricted access to critical supplies.
The base experiences temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit and persistent poor air quality because of local burn pits, which emit smog and have caused respiratory illness among both officers and detainees.
Within 72 hours of arrival, both personnel and detainees reportedly suffered symptoms consistent with bacterial upper respiratory infection. Some officers only began taking anti-malarial medication after landing, raising further health concerns, according to court filings.
Defense officials have warned that the group faces a continuing threat of terrorist rocket attacks potentially emanating from Yemen while lacking body armor or protective gear.
ICE’s use of Camp Lemonnier has drawn concern from Department of Defense officials, who report that managing the detainees is causing “disruptions.”
The Trump administration has blamed Judge Murphy for “stranding” ICE agents in Africa, despite the government’s own request to keep deportees overseas.
Judge Murphy wrote in a court order that the administration “manufactured chaos” by proposing overseas proceedings, then objecting to their own request.
The Department of Homeland Security said the situation was “endangering” both agents and detainees, while advocates for immigrants argue that U.S. authorities have the option of returning the men to the United States for resolution.
The situation reflects legal and operational challenges under the current immigration policy enforcement, highlighting recurring disputes over the right to due process and the treatment of non-citizens subject to deportation.
What People Are Saying
Ghandehari told Newsweek: “This is the latest move in Trump’s shocking expansion of third country deportations, when a person is deported to a country other than their country of origin, where they often have no connection. By expelling people out of sight and out of mind to remote prisons and war-torn, unstable countries, the Trump regime is attempting to normalize the offshoring of immigration detention and third country deportations as a new and expanded model of incarceration and deportation.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing: “Every single one of these individuals, I will add, had final orders of removal from our country. And now, Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks, threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world and putting these agents’ lives in danger by having to be with these illegal murderers, criminals, and rapists. This is completely absurd.”
Melissa Harper wrote in a court filing: “The conference room in which the aliens are housed is not equipped nor suitable for detention of any length, let alone for the detention of high-risk individuals. Notably, the room has none of the security apparatus necessary for the detention of criminal aliens. If an altercation were to occur, there is no other location on site available to separate the aliens, which further compromises the officers’ safety.”
What Happens Next
It remains unknown how long the detainees and ICE officials will remain in Djibouti.
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