US begins sending immigrants to Guantanamo prison
Feb 05, 2025
Washington [US], February 5: A US military plane has just taken off on the first flight to transport immigrants to Guantanamo prison under President Donald Trump's plan to deport illegal immigrants.
Reuters news agency on February 4 quoted US officials as saying that the first military plane had just taken off, taking detained immigrants to Guantanamo prison , in the context of the administration of President Donald Trump. Trump 's administration prepared to send tens of thousands of immigrants to a naval base in Cuba.
Mr. Trump said he wanted the Pentagon and the US Department of Homeland Security to expand the immigration detention facility at this base to be able to hold more than 30,000 immigrants.
US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the military flight to Guantanamo Bay had just carried nine to 10 immigrants, adding that they were "extremely dangerous foreign criminals", but declined to provide further information.
Military flights have taken deported immigrants to Guatemala, Peru, Honduras and India. The Pentagon said it plans to deport more than 5,000 immigrants detained by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
Military flights are an expensive way to transport migrants. According to Reuters, a military flight to deport migrants to Guatemala last week could cost at least $4,675 per migrant.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on February 2 declined to answer whether immigrant women, children or families would be held at Guantanamo, but said the administration would follow US law and the plan was not to hold them indefinitely.
The base now houses an immigration detention facility, separate from the US's high-security prison for foreign terrorism suspects.
The US government has not announced the cost of expanding Guantanamo , the prison established in 2002 to detain foreign suspects after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
