...
By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
The first military flights carrying illegal immigrants bound for Guantanamo Bay began leaving Tuesday afternoon as part of plans to drastically expand detention capacity.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump's plan was being put into action just a few days after he announced that 30,000 people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody would be held at the base in Cuba.
Newsweek reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment via email Tuesday afternoon. The Pentagon said it had no update to provide.
Read More on Politics
Why It Matters
The move comes as ICE ramps up its enforcement efforts across the country, seeking to deliver on the president's promise of mass deportations and tougher border security. Guantanamo Bay is most famous for its military prison, established after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
...
What To Know
While Leavitt announced flights would begin, she did not state how many immigrants would be flown to the Migrant Operations Center (MOC) at the complex. The Wall Street Journal reported that one of the first planes carried around a dozen migrants.
The MOC has been used to process asylum claims from those detained in the seas around Cuba and the south of the United States and does not have the capacity for the 30,000 inmates that Trump announced would be housed there.
According to CBS News, officials began setting up tents to hold the new arrivals while discussions were underway between the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security over which agency would have responsibility for those held at Guantanamo Bay and whether they were legally allowed to house migrants at the site at all.
While Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, promised a dramatic increase in immigration enforcement, the issue of capacity within ICE detention centers has remained, with little detail on how facilities within the U.S. will be expanded to cope. It was reported Monday that some of those detained in the past two weeks had already been released because of capacity issues.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, on January 29: "We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some people are so bad, we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guantanamo."
Human Rights First President and CEO Sue Hendrickson, in a statement: "Housing accused terrorists at Guantanamo has been a debacle. For the past 20 years, the U.S. government has locked up people it never even accused of taking action against the United States while continually failing to try those credibly charged with serious crimes. The Trump administration may find the symbolism of sending migrants to Guantanamo darkly appealing; its practical result would be more injustice, waste, and self-inflicted loss of credibility."
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaking to reporters on Monday: "It's the perfect place to provide for migrants who are traveling out of our country through gray tails or other assets, but also hardened criminals. Where are you going to put Tren de Aragua before you send them all the way back? How about a maximum security prison at Guantanamo Bay, where we have the space."
What Happens Next
As the flights get underway, the program is likely to face challenges from humanitarian groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, which vowed to fight the U.S. government again over its use of Guantanamo Bay.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines