from the lies,-damn-lies,-and-the-trump-admin dept
When you specifically ask a judge for something, get exactly what you requested, then immediately start whining about how burdensome your own suggestion is — well, that’s not legal strategy. That’s performance art.
Worse: having a senior Justice Department official claim that the solution that the DOJ itself requested is being unfairly imposed on the government “putting ICE agents’ lives in danger.”
Even worse: doing this based on a NY Post article… while ignoring that just days earlier the judge himself in the case had directly scolded the DOJ for ignoring that they themselves had requested this state of affairs and that they were absolutely free to arrange alternatives.
But that’s precisely what’s happening in the ongoing South Sudan deportation case, where the Trump administration is now crying about conditions they themselves created and refuse to fix despite having obvious alternatives.
Quick recap: Last week I wrote about how the US government shipped people to South Sudan without required due process hearings. When a judge blocked the deportation mid-flight, the plane diverted to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
Here’s the key part everyone seems to forget: When the judge asked about next steps, the DOJ specifically requested that the men be held in Djibouti for their hearings rather than brought back to the US. The judge made it crystal clear this was the government’s choice:
THE COURT: I’m very much considering this, but, if this is the route we go, my inclination would be to say, if you want to do all of these [interviews] where they are, you have to do them appropriately; if you don’t want to, you can always bring them home of your own volition and do it there. And so I’m not going to mandate that the Department do anything overseas, but in an effort to craft as circumscribed a remedy as possible, I’m inclined to say if the Department wants to figure that out, I’m inclined to let them.
The DOJ responded that DHS had informed them that they could handle the interviews in Djibouti. But then, five days later, they complained that it was too rough to do it remotely like that. In response, Judge Brian Murphy again reminded them, in print this time, that they could always bring the men back to the US for their hearings:
… the Court never said that Defendants had to convert their foreign military base into an immigration facility; it only left that as an option, again, at Defendants’ request. The other option, of course, has always been to simply return to the status quo of roughly one week ago, or else choose any other location to complete the required process.
So it seems pretty rich that a little over a week after that ruling, the DOJ filed a declaration from a DHS official, whining about how much of a pain it is to hold these men in Djibouti while organizing their hearings.
The aliens are currently being held in a conference room in a converted Conex shipping container on the U.S. Naval base in Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. This has been identified as the only viable place to house the aliens.
The only U.S. government personnel authorized to maintain care and custody of the aliens upon their arrival in Djibouti were the three ICE officers who accompanied the plaintiffs on this removal operation. The team of ICE officers that was originally assigned to this mission was replaced and expanded on May 27, 2025. However, having to switch teams creates additional problems as ICE must identify officers that are available to work in the same potentially deleterious conditions. Notwithstanding staffing challenges, the current group of ICE officers responsible for administering these duties is expected to be replaced soon.
There are currently eleven ICE officers assigned to guard and maintain custody of the aliens and two ICE officers assigned support the medical staff. The eleven ICE officers are divided into groups of two and work twelve-hour shifts. Five officers are assigned to the day shift, and six officers are assigned to the night shift. Officers within each shift may only take breaks when another officer assumes the assigned officer’s responsibilities during the break.
ICE officers do not have the capacity to maintain constant surveillance, custody, and care of the aliens for prolonged periods of time. The surveillance and security that ICE officers are expected to provide includes escort service to a designated area to distribute medications, as needed; to the same location for medical consultations between aliens and the medical staff, as needed; and the restroom for each alien upon an alien’s request. The alien-designated restroom has sinks, six toilet stalls, and six showers. The designated restrooms are located in a separate trailer, which is forty to fifty yards from the unit in which the aliens are housed. The ICE officers conduct pat-downs and searches for contraband during movements to the restroom, or for any other outside activity. Only one alien is allowed to use the toilet or shower at a time, and one officer is required to escort the alien. Aliens are permitted to shower every other day, and showers occur at night due to the heat. From the onset of these ICE operations, the daily temperature outside has exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day
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. 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.
ICE officers are currently sharing very limited sleeping quarters, consisting of a trailer with three sets of bunk beds and six beds in total. Storage space is limited to an individual locker for each officer.
There is limited lighting in the area, which makes visibility difficult and creates a significant security risk for both the officers and aliens.
Currently, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) resources are being used for the care of these aliens, causing disruption to the station’s operations and consuming critical resources intended for service members. DOD operators have expressed frustration, particularly about the proximity to DOD quarters of aliens with violent criminal records . ICE medical staff has also received limited medication and medical supplies for both officers and the aliens from DOD.
I have to imagine that it’s difficult, as a judge, not to respond to this by pointing out that they don’t need the judge’s permission to fix this. They have always been able to move them somewhere else, as the judge directly reminded them just a week ago.
Naturally, this manufactured crisis became fodder for the right-wing outrage machine, which then fed back into the administration, baiting the rabid MAGA crowd with lies.
First, the NY Post wrote a laughably false article based on this filing, claiming ICE agents were “stranded” in terrible conditions in Djibouti. Except, they’re not stranded. Again, the US government directly requested this and the judge gave them the option to stay there or to move somewhere else, so long as they provided the required due process.
Then, in a demonstration of how the Trump admin launders these lies, Chad Mizelle, chief of staff to Attorney General Pam Bondi, tweeted — falsely — that the judge had ordered that ICE agents do this:
That’s Chad Mizelle linking to the NY Post’s story and claiming (again, falsely):
The Judge’s orders in the DVD case are literally putting ICE agents’ lives in danger. He grounded a removal flight to South Sudan that was already over east Africa, and now three ICE agents are “marooned in Djibouti with eight criminal migrants under ‘outrageous’ living conditions and the threat of rocket attacks from Yemen.” The illegal aliens these ICE agents are charged with securing in the meantime have been convicted of murder, sexually assaulting minors, robbery and arson.
This is a top-level DOJ official lying to the American public. The judge made it quite clear, multiple times, that officials could move the men elsewhere or bring them back to the US, complete their “reasonable fear interviews” and get on with the deportation effort. The DOJ itself — which Mizelle is supposed the chief of staff for — directly requested of the court that the men be held in Djibouti.
This is, yet again, how the Trump admin works. They lie with impunity. They blame others for problems they themselves caused and refuse to even take the options in front of them to fix the mess they themselves caused. I get that their MAGA followers love this thing where they play the victim and blame big evil judges, but at some point, it would be nice if senior government officials lived in the land of reality.
Filed Under: brian murphy, chad mizelle, deportations, dhs, djibouti, dod, doj, due process, reasonable fear, south sudan
