21h ago

Trump administration says it has begun deporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay

www.theguardian.com Trump administration says it has begun deporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay

Press secretary says at least two deportation flights to Cuban base of undocumented immigrants ‘under way’

The Trump administration has begun flying undocumented immigrants from the US to a military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday.

Leavitt told Fox Business Network that at least two deportation flights were “under way”, but gave no further details.

Her comments, however, appeared to confirm reporting by the Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous official with knowledge of the operation, that about a dozen immigrants were onboard one flight from Fort Bliss, Texas. The newspaper said an additional flight had departed on Monday.

CNN later reported one of the flights had “about nine or 10” people onboard who were detained in the US without valid immigration documents.

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Sure would have been nice if Obama or Biden had actually closed Guantanamo Bay when they had the chance.
I liked to find silver linings where I can, and what I'm hoping is that when the shambles of the American government finally get back into Democratic hands (or whatever opposition party replaces them, at this point) there will finally be a realization that actual for real change is needed. Democratic politicians have been just treading water for decades now.
- I'm not American so I could be way off but didn't they try but were blocked by Republicans? At the very least they reduced the count of inmates to only the more complicated ones (ie. where do they get sent to, what do we, do we completely fried this guys brain, etc)
  
  Yeah I remember Obama wanted to close it, but then the big question of where to move the prisoners to in the US had to be answered, and nobody wanted to hold them. It was politically dead at that point.
  
  From what I recall about the reasoning behind abandoning the idea of closing Guantanamo Bay, the only options were releasing them in central park or keeping them in Guantanamo Bay.
  
  I could definitely see that being a right wing talking point at the time.
  
  Obama could have pardoned the prisoners and apologized for holding them for many years without trial, in blatant violation of the plain text in the US Constitution.
  
  Non-citizens detained in war don't have the same rights as US citizens.
  Some of those people were guilty and should have been tried and jailed here (provided they could safely be held here).
  
  Some of those people were guilty and should have been tried and jailed here
  if so, why weren't they tried and sentenced?
  
  Because placing them in Guantanamo meant no one had to actually figure out where/how to house these people safely.
  
  Isn't that what jails are for? in USA you have a ton of those I hear... if these people were guilty of anything, surely there would be zero trouble charging them (specially in the Kangaroo Military courts of the USA). Once convicted you can put them in any jail of your liking
  
  Yes, and keeping these people safe in US federal prisons was going to be difficult. Many of them would have been murdered/assaulted due to how poorly the US manages the prison system.
  
  So instead they are kept uncharged and untried forever in Guantanamo??? where they are nicely safe and comfortable and not being tortured at all? for THEIR safety? got it
  
  “Because placing them in Guantanamo meant no one had to actually figure out where/how to house these people safely.”
  I refer you back to my initial comment
- Biden's administration used the camps Trump created to deport people.
- I hope we all survive long enough for that to happen
  
  Hahaha
- Bold of you to assume that'll happen in our lifetime.
- Unfortunately, I've just seen the "opposition" just fall in line. A bunch of spineless geriatric Nazi sympathizers.
- Right, because what Trump is doing is Biden’s and Obama’s fault…
  
  As much as I hate trump, and boy oh boy do I hate him and elon so much I refuse to even capitalize their names, this is something that Bush started, and then Obama and Biden (and ESPECIALLY OBAMA) had the golden opportunity to do something about during their terms, Obama could have shut it down in 09-10 specifically with the full backing of congress; and they both chose to do nothing and let it remain.
  So now we get humans rights violations being committed on migrants instead of just "terrorists".
  
  Yes Trump is expanding on the human rights violations Obama and Biden put in place.
  Take Trump’s order to construct a migrant detention centre in Guantánamo Bay – a space that has for years operated outside international law despite outcries and appeals for closure. Hundreds of prisoners were kept there under military law, often following rendition, disappearance and torture at CIA black sites. Trump’s proposal to detain tens of thousands of migrants there is an outrageous move, but it is not an aberration. He is building, literally, on what came before him.
  “Like many of Trump’s authoritarian attacks on human rights, this one has shameful precedents in US history,” Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told CNN. “Long before the second Bush administration used the facility to hold and abuse nearly 800 Muslim men and boys as part of its ‘war on terror’, the first Bush administration held Haitian refugees there to try to deny them their rights under international law.” The prison, in fact, currently houses detained migrants in a facility called the Migrant Operations Center. Last year, the Biden administration awarded a private contractor over $160m (£130m) to run the facility.
  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/03/donald-trump-american-exceptionalism-guantanamo-bay-imperialism-billionaires
  
  You say Biden and Obama put in place, and then copy/paste something that a president prior to them in office did. What exactly are you saying they did?
  
  Did the $130 million Biden gave to a private contractor to run Guantanamo appear out of thin air?

96 comments