South Sudan officials said the Mexican returned to Mexico on Saturday, saying that he was deported from the United States and sent to South Sudan.
Ambassador Apku Ayuel Meyen, a spokesman for the South Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed J. Jesus Munoz Gutierrez’s “smooth and orderly” departure at a press conference at Juba International Airport on Saturday.
Munoz was detained at Alejandro Esteville, whose Mexican ambassador was appointed to South Sudan, Mayen said. CNN reached out to Mexico’s Foreign Ministry for comment.
Speaking to reporters in Juba before boarding the plane, Munoz said he was “invited” by the United States when he was sent to South Sudan.
“I wasn’t planning on coming to South Sudan, but they treated me well while I was here,” Munoz told reporters. “I’ve finished my time in the US, but they were supposed to bring me back to Mexico. Instead, they unfairly sent me to South Sudan.”
Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin challenged the characterization of Munoz’s deportation, saying Munoz “has been under legitimate procedures and had a final removal order.”
“It was a terrible criminal and illegal foreigner who all eight of us were sent to South Sudan,” McLaughlin said. “Aliens who commit these types of crimes are not frequently reclaimed to their country.”
Munoz was one of eight people who were deported from the US and sent to East Africa in May. He and other deportees were initially deported to Djibouti, where they were detained by converted Connex shipping containers at military bases, but the Trump administration fought in federal court for more than a month before sending them to South Sudan.
Attorneys for eight detainees from Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and other countries, along with Mexico, claimed they would face dangerous physical conditions in South Sudan, which has been suffering from communist violence since independence in 2011.
By early July, a Supreme Court decision and subsequent interpretations by the federal courts in Massachusetts allowed the government to send eight people to war-torn East African countries.
“Law and order win,” McLaughlin said in X, following the decision at the time.
Six of the eight former deportees have been detained in South Sudan, and the South Sudan government has worked with their respective home governments to deport them, Mayen said. One deportee, a South Sudan citizen, had been released earlier, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
Beyond South Sudan, the Trump administration is also coordinating the deportation of the US with other African countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and Eswatini. Rwanda recently reached an agreement to take on up to 250 immigrants who have been deported from the US, but Uganda has argued that it only accepts a limited suit, and Esvatini has already received the exile despite growing criticism.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
