A group of ICE agents and the migrants they’re holding in the African country of Djibouti following an order by a U.S. federal judge are at grave risk, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said in a sworn court declaration filed on Thursday.
The eight migrants, who have been convicted of violent crimes, were put on a plane in Texas for deportation to the East African country of South Sudan as part of the Trump administration’s effort to deport criminally convicted noncitizens to countries other than their own.
After U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy blocked the administration’s attempt to deport the group to South Sudan without giving them sufficient chance to contest their removal, the group disembarked in Djibouti, where they are currently on a military base.
MORE: Judge orders Trump administration to maintain ‘custody and control’ of any migrants deported to South Sudan
ICE officers had to “interrupt the flight and disembark in Djibouti without being on anti-malaria medication,” ICE official Melissa Harper said in a sworn declaration dated Wednesday. Harper said the migrants and ICE officers were not able to start taking antimalarials until after their arrival, and are also at risk of rocket attacks from terrorist groups, as well as extreme heat conditions.
Within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti, the officers and detainees began to feel ill, Harper said, adding that “it is unknown” how long medical supplies will last.
The migrants are part of an emergency petition the Trump administration filed with the Supreme Court asking it to lift what the administration called “onerous” due process procedures imposed by Judge Murphy.
The detainees, according to Harper, are currently being held in a conference room “in a converted Conex shipping container.”
“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,” Harper said. “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.”
Because Djibouti uses burn pits as a way to dispose of trash and human waste, Harper said the smog clouds created by the pits are “making it difficult to breathe and requiring medical treatment for the officers.”
“Due to the temperature in Djibouti being over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and in the 90s at night with usually no breeze, the smoke from the burn pits lingers,” Harper said.
The ICE official concluded her sworn testimony by saying that the ICE officers were warned by Department of Defense officials of “imminent danger of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in Yemen.”
“The ICE officers lack body armor or other gear that would be appropriate in the case of an attack,” she said.
On Wednesday, immigrant advocates and attorneys said in a letter to the Supreme Court that “If the alleged harms to the United States’ interests from class members’ continuing presence in Djibouti are as significant as Defendants claim, they retain the authority to return the individuals to the United States.”
