Trump administration returns migrants being held at Guantánamo Bay back to the US

Guantánamo, Cuba - President Donald Trump's administration has reportedly emptied the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station and returned the migrants being held there to the US.

President Donald Trump's administration has removed the 41 remaining migrants being held at Guantánamo Bay and returned them to the US.
President Donald Trump's administration has removed the 41 remaining migrants being held at Guantánamo Bay and returned them to the US.  © US NAVY / AFP

According to ABC News, the 41 migrants remaining at the base were flown by non-military aircraft on Tuesday and Wednesday to be held in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility in Alexandria, Louisiana.

There are currently no more military flights scheduled from the base for at least the next 48 hours.

In January, Trump signed an executive order instructing the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to "begin preparing the 30,000-person" facility to house violent and criminal migrants as they await deportation.

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But since the order, the facility has only been used to detain a few hundred migrants, ranging from low to high threat levels.

The preparations included 195 tents, which US officials said did not meet ICE's detention requirements.

Guantánamo Bay has an infamous reputation, as it was used as a torture site during the War on Terror under former President George W. Bush.

Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, who was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that toured the facility last Friday, said she was told by base officials that it cost $16 million to fulfill Trump's order, which she described in an X post as "costly, complicated, inefficient, and cruel."

Jacobs also told ABC that "it was clear that this was entirely for optics" as Trump's plan had "no actual operational value."

Cover photo: US NAVY / AFP

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