In 2024, The New York Times revealed that detainees in this U.S. military base face precarious conditions.

On Wednesday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that President Donald Trump’s administration is considering sending undocumented migrants to the Guantanamo military base to detain them while authorities seek to deport them to their countries of origin.

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Noem made these statements in an interview with Fox News, where she was directly asked whether the naval base in Cuba was an option for sending migrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The official explained that the government is evaluating several options to expel those who are in the United States irregularly, especially nationals from countries that do not accept deportations, such as Venezuela and Cuba.

“We are evaluating it and discussing it at this moment. It is the president’s decision, but it is a resource, and we will continue exploring how we can use all our resources to keep the United States safe,” Noem stated.

The detention camp at Guantanamo was opened in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush (2001–2009) to detain terrorism suspects as part of the “global war on terror” following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Although migrants are held in a separate area, they remain in a legal limbo within a military base that operates outside U.S. immigration laws. The situation has historically been opaque, with little public information available about what happens there.

In 2024, a report based on internal U.S. government documents published by The New York Times revealed that detainees in Guantanamo face precarious conditions, including allegations that they are forced to wear opaque-vision goggles during transfers within the base, that their calls with attorneys are monitored, and that some facilities are infested with rats.

teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE

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