By S.A. McCarthy
The Washington Stand
The U.S. could soon be making use of one of its most infamous prisons in an effort to detain and deport criminal illegal immigrants. President Donald Trump announced this week that he intends to house captured illegal immigrants at the Guantanamo Bay detention center once used to imprison Middle Eastern terrorists.
The president will order the U.S. Departments of Defense (DOD) and Homeland Security (DHS) “to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay … to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” he declared on Wednesday. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them,” he commented. He added, “We don’t want them coming back so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This is going to double our capacity immediately.”
Trump subsequently issued an executive order demanding that Guantanamo Bay’s detention facilities be expanded “to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States…” The order continued, “This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”
Newly-confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reported that the U.S. “absolutely can” detain tens of thousands of illegal immigrants captured by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Guantanamo Bay. “I served there, I know the places where this would happen. Guantanamo has long been a place for migrants. In fact, in the 90s, tens of thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants staged their as part of a crisis,” he said in an interview following Trump’s executive order. “We have an even bigger crisis on our hands right now,” he added.
“It was mentioned, 7,500 violent illegals have been captured by ICE in the last nine days, God bless them. Where do you move them? I tell you what, no one is going to be waiting on the Defense Department,” the secretary continued. “We don’t want illegal criminals in the United States — not a minute longer than they have to be. Move them off to Guantanamo Bay where they can be safely maintained until they are deported to their final location, their country of origin where they are headed,” Hegseth said. He commented, “So we feel great about this plan, we know we can execute it. And the Defense Department is prepared to do everything we can. We applaud DHS and ICE, what they’ve done, and we’re coming alongside them to make sure we protect the American people.”
As The Washington Stand previously reported, ICE has focused its initial detention and deportation efforts on violent offenders, including illegal immigrants who have raped children. Approximately 7,300 illegal immigrants were arrested for deportation during the first week of Trump’s return to office, although “border czar” Tom Homan has announced that he intends to increase the number of arrests and deportations carried out daily.
As Homan leads efforts to locate and arrest violent illegal immigrants, Trump brokered a tentative deal with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. Famously, Bukele initiated an aggressive crackdown on crime in his country, particularly focusing on the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13 gang. Nearly 100,000 gang members have been arrested and incarcerated under Bukele’s leadership, resulting in a drastic decline in homicide and crime rates in El Salvador, once considered among the most dangerous of countries to live in. Under the terms of Trump’s deal, Bukele would accept deported immigrants, even those not from El Salvador. Those who were previously waiting for U.S. immigration courts to hear their asylum claims would be granted asylum by Bukele — and barred from entering the U.S.
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
