As reported by the New York Times, the Trump administration has cleared the Guantanamo military base again, bringing back to the United States about 40 migrants who had been relocated there.
At this time, the government has not released information about the reasons for the sudden move. This is not the first time the Trump administration has found itself forced to vacate the base in question. Just a few weeks ago, the government repatriated some 177 Venezuelans who had been deported to the facility that in the past has been used to detain terrorists.
This time, however, according to some officials who preferred to remain anonymous, the migrants were taken to the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, a hub that has been involved in ICE operations on several occasions.
Since his return to the White House, President Trump had ordered the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare to send the migrants to Guantanamo as part of the implementation of his plan on mass deportations. So far, no less than 290 migrants, from 27 countries, have passed through the U.S. base.
The government has presented the prison as a good detention facility for dangerous individuals such as Venezuelans believed to be part of the Tren de Aragua, a gang the administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
However, no evidence was presented to say that the Venezuelans deported to Guantanamo were gang members. On the contrary, most of those whose identities are known have no criminal records in the United States.
In recent weeks, there has been no shortage of tense incidents at the U.S. base. In some cases, the U.S. military has had to restrain the immigrants to prevent them from inflicting dangerous or even fatal wounds on themselves.
To date, “Operation Guantanamo” has already cost the United States as much as $16 million. Meanwhile, civil liberties and immigrant rights groups have filed two lawsuits challenging the policy promoted by Trump.
In one, it calls for a court order allowing detainees to be able to consult their respective lawyers. The other, however, challenges the legality of the transfers strongly desired by the government.
Both cases have been assigned to Judge Carl J. Nichols, appointed by Trump, who will review these transactions in the coming days.
The Justice Department, for its part, has defended the validity of the plan pursued by the administration, appealing to the Immigration and Naturalization Act. The law in question, states that the government can detain people in a federal facility.
