Latest news with #EnforcementandRemovalOperations
The Intercept
a day ago
- Politics
- The Intercept
ICE Official Reveals Miserable Conditions for U.S. Immigrants at Djibouti Prison
A top Immigration 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. Melissa Harper, the number two official at ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations, bemoaned a lack of adequate security equipment at Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. base in Djibouti. 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 from malaria, exposure to smoke from nearby burn pits, and potential attacks from militants in Yemen. '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,' said Harper in a sworn declaration in federal court in Massachusetts. 'This has been identified as the only viable place to house the aliens.' Eight detainees – from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, South Sudan and Vietnam – 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. 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, 'do not have the capacity to maintain constant surveillance, custody, and care' of the detainees. Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for the immigrants in the case, told The Intercept that the government brought this situation upon itself. 'The judge gave the government a choice as to how to remedy the government's violation of the court's order – either return them and comply with the order in the United States or comply with the order overseas,' she said. ' 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.' 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. The Trump administration instead opted to detain the men in Djibouti as it argues its case. The U.S. government has been laying the groundwork for a global gulag 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 numerous other countries, including many that the State Department has excoriated for human rights abuses. In addition to using U.S. military sites at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and now in Djibouti, the U.S. has reportedly explored, sought, or struck deals with more than 20 countries: Angola, Benin, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Kosovo, Libya, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Panama, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Camp Lemonnier is the primary U.S. military base on the African continent. For weeks, U.S. Africa Command has refused to offer any details on the conditions faced by the prisoners and ICE officials there. Asked about the conditions by The Intercept last month, AFRICOM spokesperson Kelly Cahalan said: 'Please reach out to the White House.' The White House failed to respond to repeated questions from The Intercept. In her testimony, a sworn declaration regarding the case filed to Murphy, Harper detailed additional dangers at the U.S. military base. 'Djibouti utilizes burn pits as a way disposing of trash and human waste,' she said. 'These pits create a smog cloud in the vicinity of Camp Lemonnier, making it difficult to breathe and requiring medical treatment for the officers, who have experienced throat irritation.' Harper said that military resources are being used for the detainees' care, causing disruptions at the base. 'DOD operators have expressed frustration, particularly about the proximity to DOD quarters of aliens with violent criminal records,' she revealed. 'ICE medical staff has also received limited medication and medical supplies for both officers and the aliens from DOD.' 'It is unknown how long the medical supply will last.' Additionally, Harper said that within 72 hours of landing in Djibouti, both the ICE agents and detainees began suffering from unidentified illnesses. 'ICE officers continue to feel ill with symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, and achy joints. These symptoms align with bacterial upper respiratory infection, but ICE officers are unable to obtain proper testing for a diagnosis,' she said. Harper said the medical staff did not have immediate access to the medications necessary to treat the sicknesses. 'Our flight nurse has since been able to obtain some but not all of what is necessary for the proper care and safety of both the officers and the detainees. It is unknown how long the medical supply will last,' she said in the sworn declaration. ICE failed to provide a more detailed accounting of the health status of the eight detainees. 'We continue to be concerned about the health and safety of the men who are being subjected to these conditions,' said Realmuto.
Chicago Tribune
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announces leadership shakeups
WASHINGTON — The agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign is undergoing a major staff reorganization. In a news release Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced leadership changes at the department tasked with finding, arresting and removing immigrants who no longer have the right to be in the country as well as at the agency's investigative division. Kenneth Genalo, who had been the acting director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, is retiring and will serve as a special government employee with ICE. Robert Hammer, who has been the acting head of Homeland Security Investigations, will transition to another leadership role at headquarters. The agency said Marcos Charles will become the new acting head of ERO while Derek Gordon will be the acting head at HSI. ICE also announced a host of other staff changes at various departments within the agency. ICE said the changes would 'help ICE achieve President Trump and the American people's mandate of arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens and making American communities safe.' The news comes after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on Fox News earlier this week that the administration was setting a goal of 3,000 arrests by ICE each day and that the number could go higher. 'President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day,' said Miller. Three thousand arrests per day would mark a huge increase in daily arrests from current figures. Between Jan. 20 and May 19 the agency arrested 78,155 people, which translates to an average of 656 arrests per day. This is the latest staff shakeup at an agency that is central to Trump's vision of removing everyone in the country illegally. In February, the acting director of ICE was reassigned as well as two other top ICE officials. Carrying out deportations, especially in high numbers, poses logistical challenges. There are a limited number of enforcement and removal officers — those tasked with tracking down, arresting and removing people in the country illegally — and the number of officers has remained stagnant for years. ICE also has a limited number of detention beds to hold people once arrested and a limited number of planes to remove them from the country. But the administration is pushing for a major funding boost as part of a package in Congress that could supercharge immigration enforcement. The plan would aim to fund the removal of 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers. The plan also calls for 10,000 more ICE officers and investigators.
30-05-2025
- Politics
Leadership shakeups at agency tasked with carrying out Trump's mass deportations agenda
WASHINGTON -- The agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign is undergoing a major staff reorganization. In a news release Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced leadership changes at the department tasked with finding, arresting and removing immigrants who no longer have the right to be in the country as well as at the agency's investigative division. Kenneth Genalo, who had been the acting director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, is retiring and will serve as a special government employee with ICE. Robert Hammer, who has been the acting head of Homeland Security Investigations, will transition to another leadership role at headquarters. The agency said Marcos Charles will become the new acting head of ERO while Derek Gordon will be the acting head at HSI. ICE also announced a host of other staff changes at various departments within the agency. ICE said the changes would 'help ICE achieve President Trump and the American people's mandate of arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens and making American communities safe.' The news comes after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on Fox News earlier this week that the administration was setting a goal of 3,000 arrests by ICE each day and that the number could go higher. 'President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day,' said Miller. Three thousand arrests per day would mark a huge increase in daily arrests from current figures. Between Jan. 20 and May 19 the agency arrested 78,155 people, which translates to an average of 656 arrests per day. This is the latest staff shakeup at an agency that is central to Trump's vision of removing everyone in the country illegally. In February, the acting director of ICE was reassigned as well as two other top ICE officials. There are a limited number of enforcement and removal officers — those tasked with tracking down, arresting and removing people in the country illegally — and the number of officers has remained stagnant for years. ICE also has a limited number of detention beds to hold people once arrested and a limited number of planes to remove them from the country. But the administration is pushing for a major funding boost as part of a package in Congress that could supercharge immigration enforcement. The plan would aim to fund the removal of 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers. The plan also calls for 10,000 more ICE officers and investigators.
Japan Today
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Today
DHS asks for 20,000 National Guard troops for immigration roundups
FILE - A deportation officer with Enforcement and Removal Operations in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's New York City field office conducts a brief before an early morning operation, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in the Bronx borough of New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File) By TARA COPP and REBECCA SANTANA The Department of Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops to assist with immigration roundups across the country, and the Pentagon is reviewing the unusual request, a U.S. official confirmed to The Associated Press. DHS asked for the troops to help carry out President Donald Trump's 'mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens,' department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. She said DHS will 'use every tool and resource available" to do so because the 'safety of American citizens comes first.' Unlike the troops deployed at the southern border, these National Guard units would come from the states and be used to assist in deportation operations in the interior of the country. How the troops would be used may depend on whether they remain under state governors' control. Under the Posse Comitatus Act, troops under federal orders cannot be used for domestic law enforcement, but units under state control can. The addition of 20,000 National Guard troops would provide a huge boost to immigration enforcement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the DHS agency responsible for immigration enforcement in the interior of the country, has a total staff of about 20,000 people spread across three divisions. Enforcement and Removals Operations, which is the division directly responsible for arresting and removing people who do not have the right to stay in the country, has a total staff of roughly 7,700 people, including a little over 6,000 law enforcement officers. It was unclear why the request was made to the Defense Department and not to the states. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. Trump has been carrying out a wide-ranging crackdown on illegal immigration, issuing a series of executive orders designed to stop what he has called the 'invasion' of the United States. The U.S. already has as many as 10,000 troops under state and federal orders along the U.S.-Mexico border, including some who are now empowered to detain migrants they encounter along a newly militarized narrow strip of land adjacent to the border. So far, these troops have largely been limited to providing airlift, bolstering the wall, surveillance and administrative support to free up border agents for arrests or detentions. Along the newly militarized zone, troops have put up warning signs and accompanied border agents but left the detention of migrants crossing the border to other agencies. In New Mexico, where the new militarized zone was first created, federal magistrate judges have started dismissing national security charges against migrants accused of crossing the southern U.S. border through the newly designated military zone, finding little evidence that they were aware of the zone. The request for 20,000 troops was first reported by The New York Times. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Long-Lasting Trauma of Family Detention Centers
Immigrant woman and children walk across a field as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) hosts a media tour at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas on Aug. 23, 2019. Credit - Jabin Botsford—TheCrowded detention facilities filled with families and children defined President Donald Trump's first term in office. These same facilities could define his second as well. As The New York Times reported in early March, U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan and others have ramped up their efforts in response to Trump's frustration over the 'pace of deportations.' Buried in Trump's barrage of attacks on immigrants and their loved ones is the alarming practice of family detention in Texas. Shortly after taking office, President Joseph Biden halted the practice of jailing undocumented families at two of the most controversial family detention facilities in Texas: South Texas Family Residential Center (known as Dilley) and Karnes County Detention Facility (known as Karnes). Under Trump's leadership, the practice has restarted. As the CEO of RAICES—an immigration legal service agency working in communities across Texas—I can confirm that Karnes resumed holding families this year before families were transferred earlier this month to the even more remote Dilley, which is not a licensed childcare facility. We've been providing legal access to people detained in Karnes since it opened in 2014, and our team recognized the signs early this year that family detention was imminent once more. We've seen dozens of families arrive since the beginning of March, some with children as young as one, and we fear that hundreds, if not thousands, more are likely to join them soon. Over the last two months, our legal team has advocated for more than three dozen detained families and successfully secured the release of half, who can now pursue their immigration cases with their freedom. Because we have a line of sight into detention conditions, we can confirm that families with legal counsel are being released from government custody, while those who do not have access to lawyers are, unsurprisingly, more likely to remain confined or face swift deportation. Many families that are released are being placed in 'alternative to detention,' meaning that they are forced to wear ankle monitors—some of which are notably inactive based upon what we've seen to date, meaning that they serve little purpose other than a loud symbol to brand their wearers as 'criminals'—despite never being convicted of a crime. Read More on Trump's 100 Days and Immigration: How America Became Afraid of the Other by Viet Thanh Nguyẽn In 2024, following several years of alarming reports of inadequate care for children and families at facilities like Karnes, we released a groundbreaking report on the long-term mental and physical health impacts of prolonged detention. We partnered with the Child Health Immigration Research Team at the Massachusetts General Hospital Asylum Clinic and the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University to analyze the medical records of 165 children detained at Karnes to analyze the records of children between the ages of six months and 18 years who were detained between June 2018 and October 2020. In just one of several individual studies, the report examined the case of an 8-year-old child from Honduras. On his 21st day in detention, he was taken to the detention center's acute medical care facility and was seen by a mental health provider for reported 'inappropriate touching by another adult resident.' In 1997, the Flores Settlement Agreement established national minimum standards for the treatment of children in immigrant detention in the U.S.—the resolution of a landmark case that ensured some basic consideration for the welfare of detained kids. The judge in that case determined that in order to comply with the settlement, children must be released from unlicensed congregate settings such as ICE's Family Residential Centers, 'with all deliberate speed.' Our report found that the Flores Settlement Agreement was violated many times during the first Trump Administration, prolonging and exacerbating the severe health impacts children experienced while in custody. Our concerns about conditions for children in federal government custody are deepening by the day as a result of this administration's indiscriminate assault on legal and social service providers nationwide like RAICES. The degree by which we are targeted was made clear on March 21, when the Trump Administration cut legal aid for unaccompanied migrant children. In an instant, decades-long federal funding was immediately cut off nationwide, leaving service providers like us forced to wind down our work with unaccompanied children. Children, some as young as infants, will now have to navigate our immigration system alone. It is unconscionable. Just a few short months into this second Trump Administration, we are seeing with striking clarity the cruelty of anti-immigrant attacks. Redefining who is deemed 'illegal' and deportable,destroys the very fabric of our communities. Read More on Trump's 100 Days and Immigration: How the U.S. Betrayed International Students by Susan Thomas Through devastating rhetoric and action, The White House is harming children like Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, an eleven-year-old who tragically died by suicide after relentless bullying over her family's immigration status. They are also harming men, such as Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who have been wrongfully disappeared to El Salvador without any due process. They are even threatening to deport Ukrainian families who lawfully found refuge in the U.S. after fleeing relentless Russian attacks. Across the country, we are hearing from parents who are afraid to take their children to the doctor or drop them off at school; from workers who won't speak out against dangerous labor violations for fear of being deported. We are hearing from people trying in earnest to lawfully apply for citizenship but who are being detained when they show up for ICE check-ins; from longtime immigrants who fear being targeted or dutifully paying their taxes for years without being able to access the public benefits they are helping to fund. The first Trump Administration's family separation directive under the Zero Tolerance Policy felt to me as though we'd collectively hit the shameful rock bottom of our nation's modern immigration policy. I will never be able to fully wrap my mind around the fact that our government weaponized the potentially permanent kidnapping of children in order to deter parents seeking safety for their families. I desperately wanted to believe that this could be the final straw; that it would galvanize enough righteous outrage to effectively shift the lens through which our nation views the people hoping to find refuge on our shores. But after a powerful initial repudiation of this horrific policy, our collective attention on this issue has once again faded. Our silence has empowered the Trump Administration to ramp up more brutal anti-immigrant attacks, spewing blatant lies and trusting that his political opponents and the American public will sit quietly on their hands and let it happen. We cannot stand for this. Back in 2018, the Trump Administration only rescinded its intentionally traumatizing family separation policy after forceful public outcry. We know that the White House is furious over attempts to make sure our immigrant neighbors know their Constitutional rights. We know that judicial rulings limiting Trump's power to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport people without due process have gotten in the way of the administration's most dramatic plans. As Americans, we once again have the opportunity to wield our collective power in opposition to callous efforts to strip us of our humanity. At a time when the White House is counting on us to be silent and complicit, we must hold our values close and fervently push back against this heartless agenda—again. Contact us at letters@
