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Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly preparing to send thousands of illegal immigrants to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as soon as this week, marking a rapid escalation of the president’s mass deportation agenda which could target hundreds of people from European allied countries.
Immigration officials are considering whether to transfer as many as 9,000 foreign nationals, including people from the United Kingdom as well as Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Ukraine, according to reporting from The Washington Post and Politico.
Officials are not expected to inform their home countries about their imminent transfers to the notorious facility, which opened in 2002 at the height of the War on Terror.
Most European allies accept deportees from the United States to their home countries, making it unclear why the Trump administration would first force them into a detention camp roundly condemned by international human rights groups.
The naval base is expected to temporarily detain deportees before they’re removed to their home countries in an effort to free up bed space at immigration detention facilities on American soil.
A Department of Defense spokesperson did not provide any comment. The Independent has also requested comment from Homeland Security.
In January, the president said as many as 30,000 immigrants could be imprisoned inside tents and camps at the naval base, though the tents were removed in recent weeks as the number of deportation flights to the facility fell and the prison didn’t reach capacity.
Dozens of Venezuelan detainees were initially held there before the administration abruptly emptied the facility in February following a lawsuit from civil rights groups. Roughly 300 immigrants in the country illegally were imprisoned there within the first few months of his administration.
A recent lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union suggests roughly 70 immigrants are currently detained at the facility, where they face “punitive” conditions, rodent infestations, insufficient food, a lack of clean clothes, and only one hour of relief from their “indoor cage.”
“In effect, the government is perversely utilizing Guantanamo’s well-known history as a site of abuse and mistreatment, including as the location of two former CIA ‘black sites,’ to frighten immigrants,” according to the lawsuit.
Use of the facility exceeds $100,000 per day per detainee, according to Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security committee.
Guantanamo’s drastically expanded use would follow pressure from top Trump administration officials to boost immigration arrests after falling short of the president’s campaign ambitions for the “largest mass deportation operation in American history.”
Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly defended use of the facility to jail suspected Tren de Aragua gang members and “the worst of the worst and illegal criminals,” according to Noem.
But the administration has also detained “lower-threat” immigrants at the facility who were in the United States illegally but have never been charged or convicted of violent offenses or other serious crimes, according to federal guidelines.
“We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Sending anyone to Guantanamo is a profoundly cruel move and yet another effort by the Trump administration to deny due process and circumvent both U.S. and international law,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“Gitmo should be shut down now and forever,” the group added.
The potential escalation follows the president’s deployment of National Guard service members and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to crush protests against the administration’s anti-immigration agenda.
