Nearly a Dozen ICE Agents and Eight Deportees Are Reportedly Stranded In Djibouti, Uncertain About Next Steps

Nearly a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, along with eight deportees are reportedly stranded in a military base in the East African nation of Djibouti, where they are faced with dire conditions, including the risk of malaria, chronic respiratory illnesses and smog from burn pits with human waste, a recent federal court filing revealed.

The saga began when U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston blocked an ICE deportation flight taking migrants from Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Mexico to South Sudan over two weeks ago. He argued that the Trump administration was violating a previous country preventing migrants from being deported to countries where they are not citizens without a chance to ask for humanitarian protection.

But instead of returning them to the U.S. and arranging screenings for the deportees, the administration decided to offload the migrants to Djibouti, where in late May officers turned a Conex container into a makeshift detention facility on U.S. Naval Base Camo Lemonnier, The Washington Post reports.

In response to the debacle, the administration is accusing Judge Murphy of "stranding" ICE agents in the African nation.

"This is reprehensible and, quite frankly, pathological," Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

According to the report, officers and detainees are facing dire conditions every day. In Djibouti, defense officials warned them of "imminent danger of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen," but the ICE officers did not pack body armor or other gear to protect themselves. Further, temperatures rise past 100 degrees during the day, a situation that is often worsened by what the Post describes as a "smog cloud" that forms in the windless sky at night, filled with rancid smoke from nearby burning pits where residents incinerate trash and human waste.

The recent court filing details that the officers share "very limited sleeping quarters" in a trailer with three sets of bunk beds and six beds in total. The agents also have an "unknown degree of exposure" to malaria considering that, despite taking anti-malaria pills, the "full efficacy of the medication is unknown currently," according to Mellissa B. Harper, acting deputy executive associate director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations.

The filing also explains that officers started feeling ill within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti last month and "continue to feel ill with symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joint," symptoms that "align with bacterial upper respiratory infection," Harper wrote.

But regardless of criticism from the administration, Judge Murphy is continuing to defend his decision, accusing the Trump camp of "manufacturing chaos" in the case. He had previously warned that administration officials could face contempt charges after violating his weeks-old court order against summary removals of immigrants without "meaningful" notice before they are sent to countries where they could face violence or death, The Independent reports.

In court filings, Murphy said he had restrained himself by not ordering the government to "simply return" the men so they can receive due process in the United States.

"Instead, the Court accepted Defendants' own suggestion that they be allowed to keep the individuals out of the country and finish their process abroad," he wrote.

"To be clear, the Court recognizes that the class members at issue here have criminal histories. But that does not change due process," Murphy added. "The Court treats its obligation to these principles with the seriousness that anyone committed to the rule of law should understand."