Guantánamo: Decades of Detentions |
Photograph Source: Geo Swan – Public Domain
On January 29th, newly installed Pres. Donald Trump issued the following Executive Order: “I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense [DOD] and the Department of Homeland Security [DHS].”
Trump’s Order directed the DOD and DHS to prepare for Guantánamo to hold 30,000 people.
Since Feb. 4, the Trump administration had flown about 178 immigrant detainees to the Guantánamo military base — 127 of whom were considered “high-threat illegal aliens,” according to a Defense Department official.Homeland security chief Kristi Noem claimed the U.S. was shipping “criminal alien murderers, rapists, child predators and gangsters” to the Cuban naval base.
However, on February 20th, the Trump administration unexpectedly deported all prisoners back to Venezuela.A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that 126 of the deported people had criminal charges or convictions – including 80 allegedly affiliated with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua; 51 had no criminal record.
Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro said those deported “are not criminals, they are not bad people, they were people who emigrated as a result of the [US] sanctions. … in Venezuela we welcome them as a productive force, with a loving embrace.”
As of April 15th, two-thirds of the roughly 260 tents installed as part of the operation had been removed and all detainees held at “Gitmo” were returned them to the U.S.
The current use of Naval Station Guantánamo Bay to detain Venezuelan migrants for deportation is just the latest of a long history of its use as a detention facility. While many may recall Gitmo’s role during the “war on terrorism,”........