The first deportation flight of criminal migrants to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, left Fort Bliss, Texas, yesterday aboard a C-17 cargo plane. The 10 were only the beginning, however, as the current migrant detention center there is expected to be upgraded to house up to 30,000. About 300 US service members are already on site to begin preparations for that expansion.
Guantanamo is not intended to be the permanent detention center for most of the migrants, who are being described as “high threat level.” The upgraded migrant facility is located away from the now-largely disused Guantanamo Detention Camp, where many 9-11 suspects were held, in a different part of the overall 450-square-mile Naval Station Guantamo Bay. The US has maintained that base since 1903.
While many have praised the decision to send the “worst of the worst” to Cuba, there has been predictable opposition. The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an official complaint, saying in part:
The territory where it is proposed to imprison them does not belong to the United States. It is a portion of Cuban territory in the eastern province of Guantanamo, which remains under illegal military occupation and against the will of the Cuban nation. That military installation is internationally identified, among other reasons, for housing a torture and indefinite detention center, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, where people have been held for up to 20 years, never tried or convicted of any crime.
Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente said his country “will not allow” its own citizens to be sent to the base. He said Mexico would rather receive them back themselves, though that might not be possible in every case. Trump has said some detainees will be too dangerous to risk sending to their home countries, saying Gitmo is safer because “It’s a tough place to get out of.”
The 10 sent yesterday were all from Venezuela.
For more, see Breitbart News.