Trump’s Guantanamo migrant plan evokes a dark history



The US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is poised to take on a new role as a key facility in President Donald Trump’s immigration blitz. The base, located in Cuba, has long been a source of controversy due to its use as a detention center for foreign terror suspects and alleged abuses of the asylum process. Now, Trump has instructed the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to prepare a 30,000-person facility at the base, which could be used to detain migrants awaiting deportation.

The facility, which has traditionally been used to house Haitian and Cuban migrants intercepted at sea, has a checkered civil rights record and is dogged by complaints about conditions and claims that it short-circuits migrants’ access to the asylum process. Nevertheless, the Biden administration considered using the base last year to process Haitian migrants.

The symbolism of the location is significant, with Trump’s move seen as an attempt to appear tough on immigration. The president has leaned heavily into the theatrics of the restored migrant facility, conjuring a vision of a fearsome fate for migrants sent there.

However, many are concerned about the implications of using Guantanamo Bay as a migrant detention center, citing the base’s history of human rights abuses and the stigmatization of migrants. Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, has called Trump’s decision “shameful” and “a symbol of lawlessness, torture, and racism.”

The announcement has also drawn criticism from Cuba, with President Miguel Díaz-Canel calling the plan “an act of brutality” and accusing the US of attempting to imprison migrants in “illegally occupied territory.”

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