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The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to house undocumented migrants at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay amid efforts to expand daily arrests throughout the country.
At least 9,000 people are being vetted for transfer to the controversial site, according to internal documents obtained by POLITICO.
Roughly 500 migrants have been temporarily held at the facility since February, a number far short of President Trump’s previously announced goal of housing up to 30,000 migrants at the base.
The outlet reported that the upcoming transfers are an effort to “free up bed space at detention facilities on domestic American soil.”
While the documents note the plans remain subject to change, Wednesday is referenced as the earliest transfers could begin. The Department of Homeland Security may not provide advance notice to those being transferred.
The transfers come amid an aggressive push to increase arrest numbers, even as detention centers report severe overcrowding. Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller has demanded a minimum of 3,000 arrests per day.
Guantanamo Bay is in Cuba, housed on a U.S. naval base where terrorism suspects were held following the 9/11 attacks.
A pending federal class-action lawsuit seeks to block the administration from using Guantanamo Bay to detain immigrants, describing the conditions as “punitive” and unnecessary given the availability of domestic facilities.
“This is meant to shock and horrify people,” one U.S. official told POLITICO under condition of anonymity.
Critics, including the ACLU, accuse the administration of using Guantanamo as a scare tactic to induce self-deportations and suppress legal claims against removal.
The base, which has been leased by the U.S. since 1903, has long drawn international scrutiny for its human rights record. With Trump’s new directive, it could once again become a flashpoint in the nation’s intensifying immigration debate.
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