Migrants and ICE officers contend with heat, smog and illness after detoured South Sudan flight
WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants placed on a deportation flight originally bound for South Sudan are now being held in a converted shipping container on a U.S. naval base in Djibouti, where the men and their guards are contending with baking hot temperatures, smoke from nearby burn pits and the looming threat of rocket attacks, the Trump administration said.
Officials outlined grim conditions in court documents filed Thursday before a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit challenging Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts to swiftly remove migrants to countries they didn't come from.
Authorities landed the flight at the base in Djibouti, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from South Sudan, more than two weeks ago after U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston found the Trump administration had violated his order by swiftly sending eight migrants from countries including Cuba and Vietnam to the east African nation.
The judge said that men from other countries must have a real chance to raise fears about dangers they could face in South Sudan.
The men's lawyers, though, have still not been able to talk to them, said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy at Human Rights First, whose stated mission is to ensure the United States is a global leader on human rights. Barnard spoke Friday at a hearing of Democratic members of Congress and said some family members of the men had been able to talk to them Thursday.
The migrants have been previously convicted of serious crimes in the U.S., and President Donald Trump's administration has said that it was unable to return them quickly to their home countries. The Justice Department has also appealed to the Supreme Court to immediately intervene and allow swift deportations to third countries to resume.
The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight became another flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the president's policies.
The Trump administration said the converted conference room in the shipping container is the only viable place to house the men on the base in Djibouti, where outdoor daily temperatures rise above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), according to the declaration from an ICE official.
Nearby burn pits are used to dispose of trash and human waste, and the smog cloud makes it hard to breathe, sickening both ICE officers guarding the men and the detainees, the documents state. They don't have access to all the medication they need to protect against infection, and the ICE officers were unable to complete anti-malarial treatment before landing, an ICE official said.
'It is unknown how long the medical supply will last,' Mellissa B. Harper, acting executive deputy associate director of enforcement and removal operations, said in the declaration.
The group also lacks protective gear in case of a rocket attack from terrorist groups in Yemen, a risk outlined by the Department of Defense, the documents state.
___
Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this story.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
US strikes on Iran carried out with 'incredible and overwhelming success,' Hegseth, military brass say
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine held a press conference from the Pentagon early Sunday morning to relay details on the U.S. military's successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "Last night, on President Trump's orders, U.S. Central Command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran's nuclear program," Hegseth said Sunday morning from the Pentagon. "It was an incredible and overwhelming success," Hegseth continued. "The order we received from our commander in chief was focused. It was powerful, and it was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program. But it's worth noting the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people for the entirety of his time in office." The press conference was held following President Donald Trump addressing the nation at 10 p.m. Saturday evening, just hours after he announced the successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "The mission demonstrated to the world the level of joint and allied integration that speak to the strength of our alliance and our joint forces," Hegseth continued. "As President Trump has stated, the United States does not seek war, but let me be clear we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened. Iran should listen to the United States and know that he means it." Caine addressed the media and explained the strikes, dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer," included the use of submarines, dozens of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, and the "longest B-2 spirit bomber mission since 2001." "At approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time last night and just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets as often as the Operation Midnight Hammer strike package entered Iranian airspace. The U.S. employed several deception tactics," Caine said. "This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan, I'll refer you to the graphic on the side as I walk you through some of the operational details. At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States as part of the plan to maintain tactical surprise. Part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy. A deception effort, known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa," he continued. Trump announced the U.S. had struck a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran via a Truth Social post Saturday evening, that was not preceded by any media leaks of prior indication such strikes were imminent. The president ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to carry out the strikes against Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. Five to six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordow nuclear site, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity shortly after announcing the strikes Saturday night. The Isfahan facility, like Fordow, is believed to be built underground, and required precision targeting and extensive intelligence to successfully strike, Fox News has reported. Meanwhile, thirty Tomahawk missiles were fired against Natanz and Isfahan from U.S. submarines. Trump later addressed the nation from the White House while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where he announced Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" and that the country has been backed into a corner and "must now make peace." "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." Trump had repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program before striking its nuclear facilities, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for June 15 in Oman and refused to return to the table in the days following. Israel preemptively ordered strikes on Iran June 12 as Israeli intelligence indicated Iran's nuclear program was rapidly progressing. "A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan," Trump said during his address. "Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success." "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America. Death to Israel.' They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs," Trump continued. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular." The president said that the U.S. worked like a team with Israel in the lead-up to the strikes "I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades," he said. Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." The Saturday evening strikes were unexpected on Saturday evening, as Trump on Thursday said he would make a decision on Iran within the next two weeks, suggesting such a strike would not unfold over the weekend. While six B-2 bombers that were spotted heading west from Missouri toward Guam on Saturday afternoon were decoys and part of the "misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had had put off the decision," Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said during an appearance Saturday evening as news broke of the strikes. "Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west toward Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike," she said while speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier Saturday evening. "So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now." Trump earned bipartisan praise from Congressional lawmakers for taking action to prevent Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, from achieving nuclear capabilities. Other members of Congress, however, simultaneously criticized Trump for not asking for Congressional approval ahead of the military strikes and raised concerns of the risk of war. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to comment on the strikes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said that diplomacy is an unlikely option in the wake of the U.S. strikes. "Last week, we were in negotiations with the US when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the US decided to blow up that diplomacy," Araghchi wrote on X. "What conclusion would you draw?" Araghchi said he'll travel to Moscow later Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Iran enjoys "a strategic partnership."
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Hegseth, military brass describe 'incredible and overwhelming success' of US strikes on Iran
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine held a press conference from the Pentagon early Sunday morning to relay details on the U.S. military's successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "Last night, on President Trump's orders, U.S. Central Command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran's nuclear program," Hegseth said Sunday morning from the Pentagon. "It was an incredible and overwhelming success. The order we received from our commander in chief was focused. It was powerful, and it was clear we devastated the Iranian nuclear program. But it's worth noting the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people for the entirety of his time in office," Hegseth continued. The press conference was held following President Donald Trump addressing the nation at 10 pm on Saturday evening, just hours after he announced the successful strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. "The mission demonstrated to the world the level of joint and allied integration that speak to the strength of our alliance and our joint forces. As President Trump has stated, the United States does not seek war, but let me be clear we will act swiftly and decisively when our people, our partners or our interests are threatened. Iran should listen to the United States and know that he means it," Hegseth continued. Caine addressed the media and explained the strikes, dubbed "Operation Midnight Hammer," included the use of submarines, dozens of Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, and the "longest B-2 spirit bomber mission since 2001." "At approximately 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time last night and just prior to the strike package entering Iran, a U.S. submarine in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles against key surface infrastructure targets as often as the Operation Midnight Hammer strike package entered Iranian airspace. The US employed several deception tactics," Caine said. "This was a highly classified mission with very few people in Washington knowing the timing or nature of this plan, I'll refer you to the graphic on the side as I walk you through some of the operational details. At midnight Friday into Saturday morning, a large B-2 strike package comprised of bombers launched from the continental United States as part of the plan to maintain tactical surprise. Part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy. A deception effort, known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington and in Tampa," he continued. Trump announced the U.S. had struck a trio of nuclear facilities in Iran via a Truth Social post on Saturday evening, that was not preceded by any media leaks of prior indication such strikes were imminent. The president ordered U.S. B-2 stealth bombers to carry out the strikes against Iran's Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. Five to six bunker-buster bombs struck the Fordow nuclear site, Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity shortly after announcing the strikes Saturday night. The Isfahan facility, like Fordow, is believed to be built underground, and required precision targeting and extensive intelligence to successfully strike, Fox News has reported. Meanwhile, thirty Tomahawk missiles were fired against Natanz and Isfahan from U.S. submarines. Trump later addressed the nation from the White House while flanked by Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where he announced Iran's nuclear facilities had been "obliterated" and that the country has been backed into a corner and "must now make peace." "Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated," Trump said. "And Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not. future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier." Trump had repeatedly urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program before striking its nuclear facilities, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for June 15 in Oman and refused to return to the table in the days following. Israel preemptively ordered strikes on Iran June 12 as Israeli intelligence indicated Iran's nuclear program was rapidly progressing. "A short time ago, the U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan," Trump said during his address. "Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity, and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success." "For 40 years, Iran has been saying, 'Death to America. Death to Israel.' They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs," Trump continued. "That was their specialty. We lost over a thousand people and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate in particular." The president said that the U.S. worked like a team with Israel in the lead-up to the strikes "I want to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We worked as a team, like perhaps no team has ever worked before, and we've gone a long way to erasing this horrible threat to Israel. I want to thank the Israeli military for the wonderful job they've done. And most importantly, I want to congratulate the great American patriots who flew those magnificent machines tonight and all of the United States military on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in many, many decades," he said. Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to "roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival." The Saturday evening strikes were unexpected on Saturday evening, as Trump on Thursday said he would make a decision on Iran within the next two weeks, suggesting such a strike would not unfold over the weekend. While six B-2 bombers that were spotted heading west from Missouri toward Guam on Saturday afternoon were decoys and part of the "misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had had put off the decision," Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said during an appearance Saturday evening as news broke of the strikes. "Those six B-2 bombers that were heading west toward Guam, they would not have made it to Iran in time to take part in this strike," she said while speaking with Fox News' Bret Baier Saturday evening. "So, that suggests to me that there was an additional B-1 package that perhaps flew eastward from Whiteman Air Force Base. Again, this was all part of the deception. There was a great deal of sort of misleading tidbits put out there to suggest that maybe President Trump had put off the decision and that this would happen two weeks from now." Trump earned bipartisan praise from Congressional lawmakers for taking action to prevent Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, from achieving nuclear capabilities. Other members of Congress, however, simultaneously criticized Trump for not asking for Congressional approval ahead of the military strikes and raised concerns of the risk of war. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has yet to comment on the strikes. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, however, said that diplomacy is an unlikely option in the wake of the U.S. strikes. "Last week, we were in negotiations with the US when Israel decided to blow up that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the US decided to blow up that diplomacy," Araghchi wrote on X. "What conclusion would you draw?" Araghchi said he'll travel to Moscow later on Sunday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Iran enjoys "a strategic partnership."
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
In Plain Sight, Donald Trump Continues His Takeover Of The U.S. Military
WASHINGTON — The scariest moment in the second installment of President Donald Trump's America thus far is a question that was asked in the U.S. Senate and went unanswered. Five months ago, Fox News-host-turned-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked how he would respond if his soon-to-be boss told him to shoot American protesters on American streets. Hegseth, after dancing around the question, refused to answer that day. He refused to answer again when asked two weeks ago. And on Thursday, he once more refused when asked yet again while appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. We were made for this moment. HuffPost will aggressively, fairly and honestly cover the Trump administration. But we need your help. . It was, unfortunately, not an outlandish hypothetical even when Democratic senators posed the question back during Hegseth's confirmation hearing in January. Trump's first-term Pentagon chief Mark Esper, over the months that saw protests across the country following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, was asked to do exactly that. Esper refused. Today, it is even less of a hypothetical. Hegseth, at Trump's demand, has deployed both the California National Guard (over the objection of the state's governor) and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles as a backup force for immigration officers conducting deportation raids. If people don't understand why this is so dangerous, they might want to review what happened 55 years ago in Kent, Ohio. In early May 1970, Guard troops were sent to the state university there — in that instance, by the governor at the time — to disperse protests against President Richard Nixon's just announced expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. Protesters started advancing on the soldiers. Some of the soldiers panicked and fired into the crowd. Four students died and nine were injured. One of the photos from that day still serves as a searing reminder of that time. The better part of a century later, we're likely in an even more fraught place. The American military has long maintained a nonpartisan, apolitical tradition — one that Trump is clearly trying to end. He went to West Point's graduation and gave an unabashedly political speech. He went to Fort Bragg in North Carolina earlier this month and treated it like a campaign rally, even encouraging the troops there to boo his Democratic critics. He commandeered a planned celebration of the Army's 250th anniversary and turned it into a parade for himself. Months ago he sent troops to the southern border in a potential violation of standing federal law. What he is doing in California is all of this piece — transforming the nation's military into his military. Trump, it seems clear, is not really trying to maintain calm and order, but rather is spoiling for a fight. If protesters get violent or provide some other provocation, no one should be surprised if soldiers do the things that soldiers are trained to do. Which is why Hegseth's continued refusal to answer what he will do if and when Trump orders him to shoot protesters should be terrifying. Again, this is all so outside the American experience that it's perhaps understandable that people refuse to accept what's going on right in front of our eyes, in broad daylight. Trump is bringing in the military to do things that, in America, the military has no business doing, from guarding the border to immigration enforcement far inland. Note carefully that the order he signed when he first sent 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles mentions neither California nor limits the number to 2,000. The order is open-ended and in force across the country. How far a jump is it from enforcing immigration law to enforcing other criminal laws? And, with both the FBI and the Department of Justice under the control of Trump-first loyalists eager to carry out his every whim, how far a jump is it from that to arresting people who, in Trump's view, pose a threat to civil order? Any scholar of autocracies will tell you that lawyers and judges willing to stand up to a would-be autocrat is all well and good, but an even more important thing is control of the men and women with the guns. And that, thanks to 77 million Americans, is in the hands of a man who revels in his lack of regard for laws and the Constitution and has repeatedly stated his view that opposing him is tantamount to treason. What Hegseth's multiple visits to the Capitol these past months, with multiple opportunities to answer the same question and multiple variations of the same non-answer, have made clear is that he will be the defense secretary that Trump wants, the defense secretary that Mark Esper and, before him, Jim Mattis refused to be. All of which means that the survival of American democracy may be in the hands of career military officers — officers like Dan Caine, the Air Force general who is now Trump's chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Caine's name has been a fixture in Trump's rally speeches over the past six years, as the 'central casting' general who told Trump that his nickname was Raisin' Caine, and who then went on to promise that he could eliminate ISIS in weeks and then, in Trump's telling, quickly delivered. Given that story, it was easy to assume that Caine was a big fan of Trump and would do whatever Trump wants. This may well be what Trump assumed. Whatever image that might have conjured, Caine presents quite differently. Soft-spoken, deferential to both Republican and Democratic members of Congress on the dais and — perhaps surprisingly — a defender of the pre-Trump ethos of keeping the military out of politics. Basically the exact opposite of the man who has sat beside him through these many hearings and behaved as if he were still on that Fox News weekend set. When Caine was asked about Trump's speeches at West Point and then at Fort Bragg, where Trump political merchandise was being sold, Caine answered in a calming, normal, non-Trump, non-Hegseth way. 'By even my engaging in answering this question, that is making my job involved in politics,' he told the House Armed Services Committee earlier this month. 'I think the chairman and the force should stay out of politics.' For Trump to grab control of the armed forces for his personal ends, he would need to win over career officers like Caine, who spent decades in uniform under presidents of both parties and who share the basic precept that they serve the Constitution, not any single individual. It's possible Caine said what he did only because that's what the questioner wanted to hear and he is actually fully on board with Trump's rush to autocracy. On the other hand, it may be that, like former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who along with Esper thwarted Trump's attempts to use the military for his own ends in the final months of his first term, Caine and other uniformed officers will maintain an allegiance to the nation, and not Trump, and that democracy will live to fight another day. At least we can hope.
