ICE Officers Trapped in a Shipping Container With Deportees

[Jilly_in_VA]

Eight deportees and over a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are stranded in a shipping container in east Africa after a judge blocked their deportation flight.

Neither the officers or immigrants are able to leave the container, located in a U.S. naval base in the scorching-hot nation of Djibouti, until the matter has been resolved by the courts, which could take weeks.

The eight deportees, who hail from Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Mexico and South Sudan, were accused of being convicted criminals by the Trump administration and deported in late May, the Washington Post reports. After the countries declined to accept them all eight were instead sent to South Sudan, until a U.S. federal judge ruled they had the right to challenge their convictions in court.

The thirteen ICE officials meanwhile, fell ill immediately after landing and are currently suffering from respiratory infections, as well as extreme heat and cramped living conditions. They, along with the deportees, have been forced to reside in a makeshift detention center until the matter is resolved, with only six beds between them.

Court documents filed by top ICE and DHS official Mellisa Harper claim the ICE officials are experiencing “coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joints,”” and outside temperatures which exceed 100F, along with threats of malaria. At night, the air fills with a “smog cloud” filled with rancid smoke formed from nearby pits where locals burn trash and human waste, which is so polluted that some officers have taken to sleeping with facial masks on.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-officers-trapped-in-a-shipping-container-with-deported-migrants/

Awww, poor ICE-bros! My heart just BLEEDS for them! Meanwhile, the deportees are suffering the same things. And why does it take a *DOZEN* ICE bros to deport a mere eight guys to somewhere they're not even from? I hope they're all REAL sick.

[CincyDem]

1. It's tough when the privileged class has to spend even a day living like their "great unwashed" targets.

Where’s the “sad, not sad” emoji when I need it.

[Hey Joe]

2. Oh my

ICE is melting!!!

[Hey Joe]

3. Oh my!

ICE is melting!!!

[marble falls]

4. Good. These people need clued in. Too bad TACO and his family isn't in there with them.

[sl8]

5. Keep in mind the source for this report.

The reports of how bad ICE personnel have it in Djibouti come from Melissa Harper (see link below), in a federal court filing issued Thursday. There might be a chance, just an itty-bitty chance, that she's exaggerating or spinning the story, in an attempt to influence the court.

Keep in mind that the sailors stationed there are dealing with the exact same environmental conditions she's describing, on a daily basis.

Also, it sounds like ICE had the option to return to the U.S. instead.

From the Washington Post, which is the Daily Beast's source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/06/05/djibouti-deportations-migrants-ice-trump

[...]

Trump officials could have flown the immigrants back to the United States. Instead, they were taken to Djibouti, where in late May officers turned a Conex container into a makeshift detention facility on U.S. Naval Base Camp Lemonnier, according to Mellissa Harper, a top ICE official, who detailed the conditions Thursday in a required status update to the judge.

[...]

While Djibouti is one of the hottest inhabited places on earth, a Navy guide to Camp Lemonnier says it has air conditioning, WiFi, a Pizza Hut, a Planet Smoothie, and a medical clinic. It also has a movie theater, a restaurant called “Combat Cafe,” a gym and a swimming pool.

But Harper wrote that the officers and detainees staying in the shipping container have not had access to basic necessities. Officers and detainees began to suffer symptoms of a bacterial upper respiratory infection soon after deplaning, including “coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joints.”

[...]

=====

https://www.propublica.org/article/immigration-children-ice-office-refugee-resettlement-mellissa-harper

ICE Enforcement Official Tapped to Lead Unaccompanied Migrant Children Office, Triggering Alarms

ICE official Mellissa Harper has been tapped to lead the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Her hire has concerned experts and advocates that information about children and their families could be shared for arrests and deportations.