The Trump administration will detain 10 immigrants in the same prison in Cuba’s Kanto Bay, a suspected gang affiliated with a man accused of being a member of al-Qaeda, U.S. Department of Defense officials said Wednesday.
The Pentagon is preparing a tent city for immigrants and complying with President Trump’s orders and preparing for immigrants in another part of the base. But the Defense Department said the 10 deported people brought to the base on Tuesday were too dangerous for immigration sites.
Instead, they were placed in a vacant section of a military prison, which was suspected of terrorist suspects and criminals, away from other areas where the Department of Homeland Security would hold.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the men were members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua, which the U.S. government labeled last year as “transnational” criminal organizations, used for trafficking and other criminal acts. The gang traces its start back to a prison in Venezuela.
The U.S. government has long held immigration in Guantánamo Bay, mainly Cubans and Haitians picked up at sea. But prisoners were always away from immigrants during the war. Immigration is detained by the Department of Homeland Security. Suspicious Al Qaeda members were detained by the Ministry of Defense.
As Mr. Trump strengthens deportation and immigration enforcement nationwide, the decision to fly immigrants from the U.S. to bases is by deportation. Last week, he ordered his government to expand a small 120-bed center on the base to hold up to 30,000 deportations.
On Tuesday night, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a video on social media showing the people being loaded onto an Air Force C-17 aircraft in El Paso, Texas.
“Flights to Guantanamo Bay have begun,” the Post said. “The worst case scenario has no status in our homeland.”
Immigration officials hold about 40,000 detainees in private prisons and key locations in local counties across the United States. But Mr. Trump suggested last week that Guantanamo’s use could double the capacity for detention.
It is unclear how long the immigrants will hold in the facility and where they will be next, but U.S. officials said Wednesday they will be sent to their home country or another “appropriate destination.”
“Currently, these 10 high-threat people are being placed in vacant detention centers,” the Department of Defense said in a statement Wednesday. “U.S. immigration and customs law enforcement is taking this measure to ensure safe and secure detention, Until it can be shipped to its country of origin or other appropriate destination. ”
Venezuelans are held in a 200-unit security prison building called 6 camps, which has public dining and entertainment areas. The Pentagon said the 10 people were detained by immigration and customs law enforcement.
It is located in a sprawling detention area on the densely populated side of the base, far from where U.S. forces are building immigration tent camps. The sides are separated by Guantanamo Bay.
Next to the prison building where Venezuelans are detained is a smaller 75-pole maximum security prison called Camp 5. As of Wednesday, the Pentagon was the place where the Pentagon held all 15 wartime detainees, including the man accused of murder. There were 11 attacks and other long-term detainees in the war on terrorism.
