The Trump administration is holding 10 migrants with suspected gang affiliations in the same prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that has housed men accused of being members of al-Qaida, United States defense officials said on Wednesday.
Pentagon made the disclosure as US forces are preparing a tent city for migrants, in compliance with an order from President Trump, on a separate portion of the base. But the defense department said the first group of 10 deportees, who were brought to the base 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 department of Homeland Security.
On Wednesday, Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said the men were members of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua, which the US govt last year labeled a “transnational criminal organisation” for human trafficking and other criminal acts. The gang traces its beginnings to a prison in Venezuela.
The US govt has long held migrants at Guantanamo 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 DHS. Suspected al-Qaida members are in the custody of defense dept.
The decision to fly migrants from within the US to the base comes as Trump ramps up deportations and immigration enforcement across the country. Last week, he ordered his administration to expand a small, 120-bed center on the base to hold up to 30,000 deportees.
On Tuesday evening, US Customs and Border Protection posted a video on social media showing the men being loaded onto the Air Force C-17 plane in El Paso, Texas.
“Flights to Guantanamo Bay have begun,” the post said. “The worst of the worst have no place in our homeland.”
Immigration officials hold around 40,000 detainees in private prisons and local county lockups across US. But Trump suggested last week that the use of Guantanamo could double detention capacity.
It is unclear how long migrants will be held at the facility and where they will be taken next, but officials said Wednesday they would be sent to their home country or to another “appropriate destination.” NYT
