CNN
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President Donald Trump’s high-profile effort to transfer migrants from the United States to the Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is being buffeted by concerns inside and outside his administration over living conditions there and the arduous, expensive process of making it a suitable site for deportees.
Last month, the administration took the unprecedented step of sending migrants to Guantanamo Bay on US military aircraft, sparking fierce backlash from immigrant advocates and prompting a lawsuit from immigrant advocacy groups. The last flight by military aircraft to Guantanamo Bay was March 1, a US official told CNN, and there are no DOD flights to the base expected in the coming days.
As of Thursday, there were no migrants detained at the Naval base, and 40 people were flown back to the US this week, the official said. CNN reported in February that plans to house migrants in tents were being halted amid concerns the structures didn’t meet detention standards required by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Friday, a federal judge will hear a case concerning the use of the facility, stemming from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with other immigrant advocacy groups. The lawsuit calls into question whether immigrants can legally be transferred from the US to Guantanamo. It also raises concerns over detainees’ living conditions and their limited to no access to counsel.
Amid those stumbles, the administration has already spent roughly $16 million on the operation, according to Democrat Rep. Sara Jacobs, who visited the base last week as part of a congressional delegation visit.
“What we saw really was that there is very low capacity there, and it’s really expensive, and I could see no operational reasons for using Guantanamo Bay for immigration detention,” Jacobs told CNN. “It was clearly just because Donald Trump liked the optics.”
The Defense Department declined to comment for this article and referred further questions to ICE. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
For weeks, federal agencies including the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security have scrambled to execute on Trump’s direction to prepare to house up to 30,000 migrants — though the base can barely accommodate a fraction of that number. The current capacity is 225 people, according to Jacobs.
Juan Lopez-Vega, ICE official who oversees the operations at Guantanamo, recently said in court records that a total of 290 migrants from multiple countries had been transferred to the base.
In late February, the administration deported 177 Venezuelan migrants — who were held in Guantanamo Bay after being transferred from the US — to Venezuela.
The US official told CNN that DOD and DHS recently signed a memorandum of understanding formalizing each department’s role and DOD’s support to ICE at Guantanamo.
Another US official described the facility as “not a primary course of action,” saying instead that officials are looking more intently at using US military bases to house migrants.
The use of Guantanamo has also been cited in plans to detain migrants deemed to be dangerous, like members of criminal organizations including the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, one source said. The second US official also said it was likely the Naval base could be used for detaining cartel members. Tren de Aragua was recently designated a foreign terrorist organization and is the primary target for the expected use of a sweeping wartime authority.
But one of the sticking points facing officials has been trying to meet rigorous ICE detention standards, which outline requirements for facilities holding immigrants, and trepidation among contractors given the logistical challenges, one source said.
Jacobs told CNN that of the money spent by DOD, $3.1 million was spent solely on setting up tent structures, which ultimately were not in use and still not operational. As of now, the tents that were set up at the Naval base are expected to be left up for potential use during hurricane season, the second US official said.
Aside from the tents, Camp VI — the detention facility at Guantanamo — consists of single-person cells with toilets and sinks and has daily access to a communal day room, whereas the already-existing Migrant Operations Center is outfitted dormitory-style and allows outdoor recreation, according to court documents describing the facilities.
Conditions at the facilities have come under scrutiny. Some detainees have refused meals, which has led to weight loss, the US military officer overseeing the task force in charge of detention operations at Guantanamo Bay, Lt. Col. Robert Green, said in court documents. Green also said a restraint chair was used six times on February 28 — each time because of Venezuelan detainees who were engaging in self-harm.
CNN’s Angélica Franganillo-Díaz contributed to this report.
