Cnn
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President Donald Trump’s highly publicized efforts to transfer Migrants from the United States to the naval base of Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, are shaken by concerns inside and outside his administration on the living conditions there and the arduous and costly process to make it a site appropriate for deportees.
Last month, the administration crossed the unprecedented measure of the sending of migrants to Guantanamo Bay on American military aircraft, arousing fierce reactions from the defenders of immigrants and provoking legal action for immigrant defense groups. The last flight by military plane in Guantanamo Bay was on March 1, told CNN an American official, and there are no DOD flights to the expected base in the coming days.
On Thursday, there was no migrant detainee at the naval base and 40 people were released in the United States this week, the official said. Cnn reported In February, this plans to house migrants in interrupted tents in the midst of concerns, the structures did not meet the standards of detention required by immigration and the application of customs.
In the midst of these triples, the administration has already spent around $ 16 million on the operation, according to Democratic representative Sara Jacobs, who visited the base last week as part of a conference delegation visit.
“What we really saw is that there is a very low capacity there, and it is really expensive, and I could not see any operational reason to use Guantanamo Bay for immigration detention,” Jacobs told CNN. “It was clearly just because Donald Trump liked the optics.”
The Ministry of Defense refused to comment on this article and referred other questions to the ice. The Ministry of Internal Security did not respond to a request for comments.
Legal challenges were filed in the administration’s plans for Guantanamo, but on Friday, a federal judge rejected requests for emergency intervention in a lawsuit dealing with the legality of the use of the military immigration detention base. In a second case, the judge focused on the issues that prisoners have access to legal advice. The decisions of the American district judge Carl Nichols, a side of Trump, have largely hung on to the fact that there is currently no immigrant with the final dismissal orders, although he reported that the challengers may have other problems in their case.
However, Nichols said that there were “serious questions” about the question of whether the administration had the power to use Guantanamo for the purpose of holding immigration and clearly indicated that some of the complainants – 10 immigrants detained in the United States with final dismissal orders which feared that they could be transferred to Guantanamo – would be able to submit new requests for rapid judicial intervention if transferred to the base.
For weeks, federal agencies, including defense and internal security departments, rushed to execute Trump management to prepare to host up to 30,000 migrants – although the base can barely accommodate a fraction of this number. The current capacity is 225 people, according to Jacobs.
Juan Lopez-Vega, ice manager who supervises operations in Guantanamo, recently said in the judicial archives that a total of 290 migrants from several countries had been transferred to the base.
At the end of February, the administration expelled 177 Venezuelan migrants – who were detained in Guantanamo Bay after being transferred from the United States – to Venezuela.
The US official told CNN that the DOD and the DHS had recently signed a memorandum of understanding to formalize the role of each department and the support of the Ice Dod in Guantanamo.
Another American official described the establishment as “not a main action plan”, saying rather than those responsible more attentive to the use of American military bases to shelter migrants.
The use of Guantanamo was also cited in the detention plans of migrants deemed dangerous, such as members of criminal organizations, in particular the Venezuelan Gang Tren of Aragua, said a source. The second US official also said it was likely that the naval database could be used to hold cartel members. Tren de Aragua has recently been appointed a foreign terrorist organization and is the main objective of the expected use of a war authority.
But one of the confronted snack points has tried to meet rigorous ice detention standards, which require requirements for installations with immigrantsAnd an apprehension between entrepreneurs given the logistical challenges, said a source.
Jacobs told CNN that on the money spent by the DOD, $ 3.1 million had been spent only to set up tent structures, which were ultimately not used and still not operational. Currently, tents that have been installed at the naval base should be left for potential use during the hurricanes season, said the second US official.
Aside from the tents, Camp VI – The Guantanamo detention center – consists of cells from a single person with toilets and sinks and has daily access to a common day room, while the already existing migrant operations center is equipped with dormitory style and allows outdoor leisure, according to legal documents describing the installations.
The conditions in the facilities have been examined. Some detainees refused meals, which led to weight loss, the American military officer supervising the working group in charge of detention operations in Guantanamo Bay, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Green, in court documents. Green also said that a deduction president had been used six times on February 28 – each time due to Venezuelans prisoners which engaged in self -harm.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Angelica Franganillo-Díaz de CNN and Sneed de Tierney contributed to this report.