The ZIM Mount Ranier -- the largest vessel to ever dock at the Port of Wilmington -- passes by the waterfront in Southport, N.C., on Monday, March 31, 2025. At just over 1,200 feet long, the ship can carry up to 15,000 containers. Crowds gathered to watch as it made its way down the Cape Fear River and out to sea.
Washington D.C. – A group of eight deportees and 13 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers remain stranded in a converted shipping container at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti after a court blocked their scheduled deportation flight to South Sudan. The detainees and officers are reportedly falling ill amid harsh conditions and heightened security risks, raising serious concerns about the handling of the deportation.
The eight men, originally from Latin America, Asia, and South Sudan, were removed from the United States under the Trump administration’s policy targeting individuals with criminal convictions. However, their transfer to South Sudan was halted in late May by a federal judge in Boston, who ruled that the men have a legal right to challenge deportations to third-party countries in court. This judicial intervention has left the group and accompanying ICE personnel trapped in the East African country under precarious circumstances.
According to a declaration by Melissa Harper, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, the group is housed in a shipping container that was once used as a conference room. The container’s limited space forces the 13 ICE officers to share only six beds, while detainees endure restrictions including just one shower per day and “pat-downs and searches” en route to a restroom 40 yards away. Lighting is insufficient, posing security challenges, particularly given warnings of potential rocket attacks from terrorist groups in nearby Yemen. Despite these threats, ICE officers lack adequate protective gear.
The extreme climate, with daytime temperatures regularly exceeding 100°F, exacerbates the group’s vulnerability. Harper’s statement also noted that neither detainees nor officers took anti-malaria medication before arrival, leaving them exposed to mosquito-borne illnesses. Both officers and detainees began experiencing symptoms consistent with bacterial upper respiratory infections within 72 hours of landing. Yet, they have been unable to access proper medical testing or treatment.
The Trump administration initially attempted to deport the men to their home countries—Myanmar, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Mexico, and South Sudan—but these nations declined to accept them. Subsequently, U.S. authorities arranged for the flight to South Sudan, only to be blocked by the federal court.
