WASHINGTON — Three Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been marooned in Djibouti with eight criminal migrants under “outrageous” living conditions and the threat of rocket attacks from Yemen after a federal judge barred the convicts’ deportation to South Sudan, The Post has learned.
The eight migrants — who have been convicted of murder, sexually assaulting minors, robbery and arson, among other crimes — are being housed in a Conex shipping container on a US naval base in the African country and are watched around the clock by the team of ICE officers.
Pentagon officials warned ICE after the team’s arrival that Camp Lemonnier is at risk of rocket strikes from Houthi terrorists across the Red Sea in Yemen, while the officers have also been exposed to toxic smog from nearby burn pits where locals dispose of trash and human waste.
Following a late May order by Boston US District Judge Brian Murphy, the officers had to land the flight carrying the migrants in East Africa without taking any anti-malaria medication — which was not provided until more than two days after they arrived.
Some “began to feel ill within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti,” a Department of Homeland Security source told The Post.
A flight nurse was able to later find some anti-malaria medication, though the supply has been limited.
In addition, the officers are the only federal personnel authorized to escort the migrants to the bathroom and pat them down for weapons and contraband, and the grueling ordeal has required them to be relieved by fill-in teams periodically.
“It is outrageous that this judge is putting the health and safety of law enforcement officers at risk for the sake of criminals,” the source said.
Murphy, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ordered the flight grounded May 22 when he ruled that the Trump administration had “unquestionably” violated a March court order pausing migrant removals to countries from where they do not originate.
Each migrant should be given written notice and offered a chance to object to their deportation, Murphy also ordered.
Only one of the eight migrants put on the flight was a native of war-torn South Sudan, while the others came from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar and Vietnam.
A Trump administration official previously claimed the deportees’ crimes were so “monstrous and barbaric” that no other country would take them.
The migrants stranded with the ICE officers include:
- Enrique Arias Hierro, a Cuban national, who was convicted in 1999 of attempted second-degree murder and robbery and in 2007 for kidnapping, robbery and impersonating a police officer, earning him a 15-year prison sentence.
- Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones, another Cuban national convicted in 2008 of arson and cocaine trafficking; in 2020 of illegal possession of a firearm; and in 2022 of attempted first-degree murder, earning him a four-year prison sentence.
- Thongxay Nilakout, a Laotian national, who was convicted in 1995 for the first-degree murder of a German tourist in California — and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez, a citizen of Mexico, who was convicted in 2005 of the second-degree murder for stabbing his then-roommate with a knife and later sentenced to 25 years in prison.
- Kyaw Mya, of Myanmar, who was convicted in 2019 for repeatedly sexually assaulting a minor from 2011 to 2017 starting when the victim was seven years old. Mya was later sentenced to 10 years in prison.
- Nyo Myint, also of Myanmar, who was convicted in 2020 of first-degree sexual assault involving a victim mentally and physically incapable of resisting. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
- Tuan Thanh Phan, of Vietnam, was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder after he “randomly” discharged a firearm into a crowd following a gang dispute and later sentenced to 22 years in prison.
- Dian Peter Domach, the only Sudanese national in the group, was convicted in 2014 of armed robbery and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
All eight were either given final removal orders or did not appeal their initial deportation order following a conviction, the DHS source noted.
The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn the Murphy’s decision, but no action has yet been taken.
“This case addresses the government’s ability to remove some of the worst of the worst illegal immigrants,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in an emergency appeal to the high court on May 27.
“The United States is facing a crisis of illegal immigration, in no small part because many aliens most deserving of removal are often the hardest to remove.”
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