The Donald Trump administration is sending some illegal immigrants deported from the US to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The facility was constructed by the George W. Bush administration to house detainees in the CIA torture program. Initially, the White House said the migrants would be imprisoned at a separate facility in US-occupied Cuba.
Last week, Trump signed an executive order to begin sending illegal immigrants to a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and expand its capacity to 30,000 beds. Trump said those deported to the prison were such dangerous criminals that the White House could not risk sending them to their home counties and later returning to the US.
According to several officials speaking with NBC News, the migrants will not be sent to the migrant facility but rather to the infamous torture prison. “The majority of the immigrants sent to Guantanamo under Trump’s plan are expected to be held temporarily in the tent camps near the prison before being transported to their home country.” The report continues, “But those considered by the administration to be the most dangerous criminals are expected to be held separately at the facility used to hold detainees accused of terrorism.”
The first deportation flight of ten deportees was conducted on Tuesday. The administration claims they are affiliated with Latin American gangs. On Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order that instructed his staff to consider designating some Central American drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
It is unclear under what legal authorities that Trump is sending the detainees to the prison. He also suggested the migrants will be at the facility for an extended period of time. During the Bush presidency, the facility was used to deny the detainees’ Constitutional rights.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” he said at a press conference last week. “This will double our capacity immediately, right? And tough. That’s a tough – that’s a tough place to get out of.”
The torture prison opened in 2002 and was used during the War on Terror to house people deemed the “worst of the worst” by the Bush administration. However, many of the detainees were released after being cleared of involvement with terrorist organizations.
John Yoo, who wrote the legal memos authorizing the use of torture, including waterboarding, told NBC News, that there are questions about whether the deported migrants at Gitmo would have the legal right to appeal their detention.
