The Trump administration is planning to dramatically ramp up sending undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay starting this week, with at least 9,000 people being vetted for transfer, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
The plan also comes amid intensifying legal efforts to block the administration from using Guantanamo Bay to house immigrant detainees altogether.
The U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay has for years held terrorism suspects detained after the 9/11 attacks.
Since February, the U.S. has held approximately 500 migrants at the Guantanamo facility, according to last week’s court filing.
During the peak of the war on terror, the U.S. held 780 people at the Guantanamo Bay facility.
According to documents obtained by POLITICO, the Trump administration intends to significantly increase the number of undocumented migrants being sent to Guantanamo Bay beginning this week, with at least 9,000 individuals being evaluated for transfer.
The roughly 500 migrants who have been detained at the base for brief periods since February would have experienced an exponential increase, and it would be a significant step toward President Donald Trump’s January announcement that the facility would be used to house up to 30,000 migrants.
According to the papers, the transfers to Guantanamo might begin as early as Wednesday. The detainees are anticipated to remain at the facility for a brief period of time before being sent back to their home countries.
The transfers are being made ostensibly to free up beds at detention centers located within the United States, but using the infamous facility—which has long held terrorist suspects—would also send a message to discourage illegal immigration to the country.
According to the documents, the plans have only recently been finalized and are subject to change. But according to the documents, the Department of Homeland Security might not have informed the impacted countries beforehand.
When asked for comment, DHS and State Department spokespeople did not immediately reply.
Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser, has called for 3,000 arrests per day, and the White House is pressuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to increase the number of arrests. Along with having limited detention space, the agency is pleading with Congress for money to increase the number of agents and capacity for domestic detention.
One of the documents states that about 800 Europeans, including one Austrian, 100 Romanians, and 170 Russians, are being considered for the transfers. Some people are concerned about that aspect of the plan. S. diplomats, who point out that there is no reason to send the individuals to Guantanamo and that the majority of European nations are friendly allies of the United States that assist in repatriating deportees.
European-facing State Department officials are attempting to convince DHS to drop the plan.
According to a State Department official with knowledge of the matter, the goal of the Guantanamo plan is to “shock and horrify people, to upset people.”. We are allies, though. Since the individual was not permitted to speak with the media, they were given anonymity.
The proposal also coincides with escalating legal actions to prevent the administration from housing any detainees who are immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. Approximately 70 immigrant detainees are presently housed there and subjected to “punitive” conditions, including inadequate food, weekly clothing changes, and rodent infestation, according to a federal class-action lawsuit that is still pending in Washington.
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union contend in the lawsuit that the government has not found any justifiable reason for detaining foreign nationals at Guantanamo instead of in American detention centers. Instead, the defendants are using the threat of detention at Guantanamo to intimidate foreigners, discourage them from migrating in the future, force them to self-deport, and force those who are detained to relinquish their claims against removal and agree to be deported somewhere else. “”.
The matter is still before U. A. President Donald Trump appointed Carl Nichols, a district judge.
The U. S. For many years, terrorism suspects detained following the 9/11 attacks have been housed in a military facility at Guantanamo Bay. The land, which is on Cuban territory but has historically housed a U.S. military installation, has been used by the Trump administration. S. . navy base, where migrants could be deported.
The length of time that newly arrived Guantanamo detainees would remain there before being returned to their home countries is unknown.
The U.S. S. According to a court filing last week, the Guantanamo facility has detained about 500 migrants. Sen. . According to remarks made last month by Gary Peters, the leading Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, each detainee’s daily use of the facility seems to cost $100,000.
At the height of the war on terror, the U.S. A. held at the Guantanamo Bay facility, with 780 people. Trump’s directive to house about 30,000 people at the Pentagon in January startled Pentagon officials. Many expressed concern over issues with tropical weather, staffing shortages, and migrant access to healthcare, in addition to the larger difficulties in allocating funds and resources as Trump deploys the military to strengthen border security.
This 45-square-mile naval base is part of the U.S. S. . held 178 migrants in February before the Trump administration abruptly moved the Venezuelans out of the facility, which has been leased since 1903. That was in a February. The administration stated in a 20 court filing that the detention center would serve as a temporary holding facility.
According to Justice Department attorneys, “the removal also underscores that immigration detention at [Guantanamo Bay] is intended for temporary staging and not for indefinite detention, as Petitioners have suggested in their filings.”.
This report was contributed to by Kyle Cheney.
