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A top Immigration<\/span> and Customs Enforcement official on Thursday detailed appalling and unsafe conditions faced by a group of deportees, and the government officials guarding them, at a U.S. military base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti.<\/p>\n Melissa Harper, the No. 2 official at ICE\u2019s Enforcement and Removal Operations, bemoaned a lack of adequate security equipment at the U.S. base Camp Lemonnier. In a sworn court declaration, she described illness among the detainees and government agents, inadequate medical care, and 100-degree outdoor temperatures. She detailed risks of malaria, exposure to smoke from nearby burn pits, and potential attacks from militants in Yemen.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe aliens are currently being held in a conference room in a converted Conex shipping container on the U.S. Naval base in Camp Lemonnier,\u201d said Harper in a\u00a0sworn declaration<\/a>\u00a0in federal court in Massachusetts. \u201cThis has been identified as the only viable place to house the aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eight detainees \u2014 from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Vietnam \u2014 who had been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. were flown to the military base last month after the Trump administration attempted to expel them to South Sudan. A judge blocked that expulsion, telling the administration they could not send the men to the war-stricken country before they were given an opportunity to contest their deportation.<\/p>\n Now imprisoned in Djibouti, the men are currently supervised by 11 ICE personnel with two other ICE employees serving as medical staff. Those officials, Harper said in court, \u201cdo not have the capacity to maintain constant surveillance, custody, and care\u201d of the detainees.<\/p>\n Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the immigrants in the case, told The Intercept that the government brought this situation upon itself. <\/p>\n \u201cThe judge gave the government a choice as to how to remedy the government\u2019s violation of the court\u2019s order \u2014 either return them and comply with the order in the United States or comply with the order overseas,\u201d she said. \u201c<\/em>The government opted to comply overseas after telling the court that they had the ability to do so. This is a situation the government both created and can remedy if it so chooses.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the Trump administration to halt the planned deportations to South Sudan after lawyers informed him of a flight to that war-torn African country that had already taken off. He cited a previous ruling he issued in April that barred officials from deporting migrants to third countries, without affording them certain due process rights first.<\/p>\n The Trump administration instead opted to detain the men in Djibouti as it argues its case.<\/p>\n The U.S. government\u00a0has been laying the groundwork for a global gulag <\/a>for expelled immigrants. The Trump administration is already using the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, and has its sights set on\u00a0numerous other countries<\/a>, including many that the State Department has excoriated for human rights abuses.<\/p>\n In addition to using U.S. military sites at Guant\u00e1namo Bay, Cuba, and now Djibouti, the U.S. has reportedly explored, sought, or struck deals with more than 20 countries: Angola,\u00a0Benin<\/a>,\u00a0Costa Rica<\/a>,\u00a0El Salvador<\/a>,\u00a0Eswatini<\/a>, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Kosovo, Libya, Mexico,\u00a0Moldova<\/a>, Mongolia,\u00a0Panama<\/a>, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia,\u00a0South Sudan, Ukraine<\/a>, and Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n