Many details are still unknown about how the United States is implementing President Donald Trump’s recent order to expand operations to “full capacity” at Guantanamo Bay (pictured above in a 1963 Library of Congress image). But Carol Rosenberg of The New York Times reports about what she’s found so far, in a detailed piece that addresses a series of questions, including whether the U.S. military base in Cuba is prepared to hold the 30,000 immigrants that Trump had announced, along with how much it will cost, who is being held at Guantanamo to date, and whether the current war-crimes court facility can be used for migrants. Also, The Guardian reports that federal audits and other documents show that Akima, a Virgina company running the immigration detention center at Guantanamo holds more than 2,000 contracts with the U.S. government and “has been the subject of critical audits and a civil rights complaint over conditions at three other migrant lockups it has run within the U.S.”
Contracts reviewed by the Guardian also reveal the level of security required at Guantanamo. “Migrants under ICE custody are to be transported around the base in “black-out vans” with “hand restraints and black-out goggles to obscure their vision,” the Guardian writes. In August, the Biden administration had awarded a $163.4 contract to Akima Infrastructure Protection, to run the migrant detention facility at Guantánamo through June of 2029, the Guardian reports. The migrant center was previously used for people picked up at sea; this marks its first use for people transported from U.S. soil.
Rosenberg, who has reported on Guantanamo since 1999, found that, as of Tuesday, there were about 850 troops and civilians assigned to migrant operations, more than 700 of them in the U.S. military. But will need to be expanded greatly to handle 30,000 immigrants, she writes, noting that a military blueprint for the migrant operation shows plans to house more than 3,500 U.S. forces near tent encampments for more than 11,000 migrants.
She also revealed specifics about where 175 transported Venezuelans were being held. “With support from the Coast Guard, the military has been guarding and managing the Venezuelans in two separate buildings: the 120-bed Migrant Operations Center near the tents and a 176-cell military prison on the other side of the base for men the Trump administration has profiled as potentially dangerous or more dangerous,” Rosenberg writes. Of the 175, the Defense Department considered 127 “high-threat illegal aliens.” The Trump administration has generally described the men sent to the base as including violent gang members being held for deportation, but has provided no proof, Rosenberg writes, who also explains in a section of her piece why – for budgetary and training reasons -- it’s concerning to have military troops guarding migrants.
Even as Venezuelans arrive at Guantánamo, Rosenberg writes, others have been sent back to Venezuela. On Feb. 10, Venezuela sent two planes to El Paso and picked up about 190 of its citizens, who were also under deportation orders. On the same day, a U.S. military cargo plane transported 15 men to Guantánamo Bay. Those men were put in the 120-bed dormitory.
But the Pentagon’s war crimes court compound, which was created for Al Qaeda prisoners, could not be used for ICE detainees, who have not been accused of committing war crimes. The law that created the military commissions system specifically limits its use to war crimes trials of foreign citizens who are members of Al Qaeda or their associates, specifically men held as detainees in the war against terrorism. By U.S. law, the Qaeda prisoners at Guantánamo Bay cannot set foot on American soil. But there is nothing prohibiting the migrants from being flown back to the United States to appear in court.
While the tents and cots were already in storage at Guantánamo, in case of a humanitarian crisis in the Caribbean, most of the provisions, including pallets of drinking water, will have to be airlifted to the base. That will make it an expensive mission. Since 202, prison and court functions for the war on terrorism operation worked out to $13 million per prisoner per year, according to a 2019 study, including court costs, Rosenberg writes.
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