(NewsNation) — Nearly a dozen ICE officers and eight migrants are stranded in a shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti after a federal judge blocked their deportation flight to South Sudan.
According to a federal court filing issued Thursday, no one has been able to leave the container and they all fell ill with respiratory infections, along with dealing with extreme heat and the threat of rocket attacks from Yemen. The ICE officers are also reportedly at risk for malaria due to not being vaccinated or taking the appropriate medication before arriving.
The eight deportees, all men coming from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos, South Sudan and Mexico, were accused of being convicted criminals by the Trump administration and ordered to be deported in late May. After their countries declined to accept them, they were all set to be sent to South Sudan until U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled that they had a right to challenge their convictions in court.
“This Massachusetts District judge is putting the lives of our ICE law enforcement in danger by stranding them in Dijbouti without proper resources, lack of medical care, and terrorists who hate Americans running rampant,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on social platform X. “This is reprehensible and, quite frankly, pathological.”
It is unclear how long the ICE officers and deportees will remain in Djibouti.