President Donald Trump vowed to ship “the worst criminal aliens threatening America” to Guantanamo Bay. But even nonviolent, low-risk migrants have been detained on the remote island, according to CBS News.
Two U.S. officials who spoke anonymously to CBS News, along with internal government documents, indicated that migrants deemed “low-risk” were being sent to Guantanamo Bay along with “high-risk” individuals such as those with criminal records or ties to gangs.
Government guidelines define “low-risk” migrants as those who face deportation because they are in the U.S. illegally but otherwise have not been accused or convicted of violent or serious crimes.
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High-risk detainees have reportedly been locked up in cells at Guantanamo’s maximum-security prison while low-risk migrants were taken to a barrack-like facility called the Migrant Operations Center, which includes rooms with restrooms. It was typically used to house asylum seekers.
There are less than 100 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Daily Beast on Thursday.
“In addition to holding violent gang members and other high-threat illegal aliens, Guantanamo Bay is also holding other illegal aliens with final deportation orders,” the official said. “Every single alien at Guantanamo Bay has a final deportation order. All these individuals committed a crime by entering the United States illegally.”
Trump earlier announced that 30,000 beds were being prepared in Guantanamo Bay to detain undocumented migrants.
“Most people don’t even know that we have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” he said last month.
“Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo,” the president added.
