Trump directs Pentagon and DHS to organize migrant housing at Guantánamo Bay
President Donald Trump signed a memo Wednesday that units in movement preparations for a facility to deal with hundreds of migrants on the U.S. navy camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he mentioned was an effort to “halt the border invasion.”
“I hereby direct the Secretary of Protection and the Secretary of Homeland Safety to take all acceptable actions to broaden the Migrant Operations Middle at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capability to supply extra detention area for high-priority prison aliens unlawfully current in america,” the memo to the Division of Homeland Safety and the Protection Division says.
Trump previewed the directive at a signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure, saying he would “instruct the departments of Protection and Homeland Safety to start getting ready the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay.”
“Most individuals don’t even find out about it. We have now 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst prison unlawful aliens threatening the American folks. A few of them are so dangerous we don’t even belief the nations to carry them, as a result of we don’t need them coming again,” he added.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned Wednesday evening that the naval base “is an ideal spot” for Trump’s mass deportation plans.
“Transfer them off to Guantánamo Bay, the place they are often safely maintained till they’re deported to their remaining location, their nation of origin,” Hegseth mentioned on Fox Information. “We all know we will execute it, and the Protection Division is ready to do every part we will.”
The Guantánamo announcement caught many officers on the Pentagon off-guard, based on 5 protection officers.
One official mentioned the Guantánamo mission can be a DHS mission. It’s unclear whether or not the navy can be concerned, however the Pentagon has no orders or steering from the White Home past the memo, the official mentioned.
Officers who had been stunned by Trump’s announcement mentioned they have no idea what number of beds for migrants are at Guantánamo or whether or not it could be a short- or a long-term mission. They mentioned there are not any plans to improve or change the navy services there.
“We’ve been ramping down this mission,” one of many officers mentioned of Guantánamo Bay.
A separate Migrant Operations Middle on the camp could possibly be expanded — with navy building assist — and run by DHS.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned in a CNN interview Wednesday that “there could be some sources that could possibly be established for the worst of the worst at Guantánamo Bay” and that Trump and DHS had been assessing these sources.
Guantánamo Bay grew to become a detention website the place detainees had been first despatched in 2002 beneath President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults. President Joe Biden mentioned when he was in workplace that he wished to shut down the detention facility, as did President Barack Obama. Neither was profitable.
The Protection Division mentioned this month that 15 detainees stay at Guantánamo Bay after it transferred 11 Yemeni detainees to Oman after they’d been held on the base for over 20 years.
Trump has made different efforts to crack down on migrants dwelling in america illegally since his second time period started.
Throughout his first week in workplace, Trump declared a nationwide emergency on the border that would allow the Pentagon to deploy the navy, together with the Nationwide Guard, to the border. He has additionally signed a slew of government orders supposed to shutdown unlawful immigration on the southern border and to deport hundreds of thousands of people that have crossed into america illegally.
