Despite statements from the Trump administration saying that detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay were reserved for only the most dangerous criminals and suspected gang members, a recent report reveals that nonviolent, "low-risk" migrant detainees who lack serious criminal records are also being transferred to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
According to two U.S. officials and internal government documents, the Trump administration has sent migrant criminals and alleged gang members to the detention facility, but in addition, U.S. officials have also transported migrants deemed to be low-risk.
As reported by CBS News, more low-risk migrants are expected to be transported on Feb. 12, alongside high-risk detainees, internal documents show.
President Trump announced the executive order on January 29, instructing the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to prep Guantanamo Bay for migrant detentions. Trump said the notorious facility had thousands of beds available for the "worst criminal illegal aliens" detained by his administration.
"We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people," Trump said. "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."
As government guidelines show, federal immigration authorities define low-risk detainees as migrants who face deportation because they are in the U.S. illegally but who have not been arrested or convicted of violent offenses or other serious crimes.
According to a testimony from a U.S. official to CBS News, the low-risk detainees have been placed in a barrack-like facility known as the Migrant Operations Center, which includes rooms with restrooms.
When asked for comment, representatives for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond.
The report says that over the past week, U.S. service members at Guantanamo Bay have been erecting tents to house migrant detainees beyond the prison and the Migrant Operations Center, as they both have limited capacities.
And although Republican lawmakers have praised Trump's decision for using Guantanamo to hold migrant detainees, pro-immigrant civil rights groups have raised their concerns about the detention facility.
Some of them have accused the Trump administration of using the naval base as a "legal black hole" to hold migrants, while others are demanding that detainees be given access to lawyers.
According to the report, nearly 100 undocumented immigrants were being held at Guantanamo as of Feb. 11, all of them adults from Venezuela. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said recently the detainees will be held there until they can be deported, but it remains unclear when that could happen.
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