On Wednesday, President Trump reportedly directed the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to establish a facility at Guantanamo Bay capable of accommodating up to 30,000 migrants.
According to Trump, the U.S. Navy station in Cuba, which has served as a jail for over twenty years for terror suspects, will be utilized to contain the most dangerous criminal illegal aliens posing a threat to the American populace. He did not provide additional information on how this would happen.
The action highlighted the White House’s growing dependence on military installations and personnel to implement its immigration enforcement measures.
Trump has directed active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to support civilian authorities and is utilizing Air Force transport planes to expedite deportation flights to other nations.
Increasing the number of detention beds by 30,000 would nearly increase the capability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants prior to their deportations.
Congress has allocated financing for the detention of up to 41,000 immigrants simultaneously, a historically unprecedented figure that Trump’s administration deems insufficient in its efforts to execute the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
Guantanamo Bay has historically functioned as a migrant holding facility, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, when thousands of Haitians were relocated there, occasionally even subsequent to securing asylum approvals.
The Biden administration utilized the facility to accommodate a limited number of migrants for resettlement to other nations.
Pentagon officials stated they were uninformed of the proposal, which White House officials indicated was finalized on Wednesday.
The administration will augment an existing migrant detention center at the base, enhancing temporary housing and additional facilities for thousands more individuals, as stated by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House border czar Tom Homan to reporters following Trump’s declaration.
The administration will want Congress to finance the expansion within the tax and spending legislation that Republicans are attempting to compile.
Detaining migrants in Guantanamo Bay would restrict detainees’ immediate access to legal representation, stated Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and former senior immigration official in the Obama administration.
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