Ten migrants with suspected gang affiliations in the same prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that has housed men accused of being members of Al Qaeda, U.S. defense officials said on Wednesday. The Pentagon made the disclosure as U.S. forces are preparing a tent city for migrants, in compliance with an order from President Trump, on a separate portion of the base, the New York Times reports. But the Defense Department said the first group of 10 deportees, who were brought to the base on Tuesday, were too dangerous for the migrant site. Instead they were put in a vacant section of the military prison that houses terrorism suspects and convicts, far from the area where other deportees will be held by the Department of Homeland Security.
The U.S. government has long held migrants at Guantánamo Bay, primarily Cubans and Haitians who have been picked up at sea. But the wartime prisoners have always been kept away from the migrants. Migrants are in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. Suspected Al Qaeda members are in the custody of the Defense Department. It is unclear how long the migrants will be held at the facility and where they will be taken next, but U.S. officials said on Wednesday that they would be sent to their home country or to another “appropriate destination.” “These 10 high-threat individuals are currently being housed in vacant detention facilities,” the Defense Department said in a statement on Wednesday. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking this measure to ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination.”