The Trump administration’s deeply controversial policy of working directly with African governments to facilitate deportations has raised eyebrows. In exchange, the inmates were sent back to Mexico. Among the recent eight repatriated detainees was J. Jesus Muñoz Gutierrez. These civil society activists were forcibly removed from the U.S. against their will and returned to South Sudan following a lengthy legal struggle.
The mass deportation operation that resulted in this action included deportees from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and Mexico. During May, Muñoz Gutierrez was one of those deployed to South Sudan. This action was a piece of a larger strategy. As the Trump administration’s efforts to partner with countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, and Eswatini to take in deportees were not entirely successful.
As a result, the deportees were initially sent to Djibouti. There, they were locked down inside a repurposed Conex shipping container at a quarantine facility on Joint Base Cape Cod. After over a month of furious litigation in federal court, the Trump administration caved on their deportation to South Sudan. That decision closed a long and controversial chapter. A Supreme Court ruling made this planned action nearly inevitable. Then, a federal court in Massachusetts issued an interpretation that really fleshed out the ruling.
When Muñoz Gutierrez first landed in South Sudan, he was promptly transferred to Alejando Estivill. Estivill is currently the Mexican ambassador-designate to South Sudan. Reflecting on his ordeal, he said he felt lost and disoriented about being deported.
“I felt kidnapped,” – J. Jesus Muñoz Gutierrez
Muñoz Gutierrez announced he had never intended to travel to South Sudan. Instead, he was supposed to be returned to Mexico. Wonderful experience, despite what was happening on the ground. He admitted that, despite the circumstances, he was fortunate to get good care while in South Sudan.
“I was not planning to come to South Sudan, but while I was here, they treated me well.” – J. Jesus Muñoz Gutierrez
Of the eight deportees, an individual with South Sudanese citizenship was released on the earlier date. At the same time, six others remain in custody while the South Sudanese government continues to negotiate their return with their home countries.
Under the agreement, Rwanda would take in up to 250 of these migrants deported from the U.S. Yet, we have Uganda deciding to constrict their acceptance of these cases. For its part, Eswatini has already accepted several deportees as criticism mounts on its role in these operations.
That picture is changing by the minute though. It exposes important questions about what countries should be doing to work together around immigration and how they are responding to people with deep legal and geopolitical ties.
