Miami.- Donald Trump’s administration has started the transfer of migrants to the Naval Bay of the Guantanamo Bay, located east of Cuba, as part of a plan to expand the ability to detention of undocumented people in US territory. White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed Tuesday at Fox Business that the first flights were already underway.
This transfer occurs after the order of President Trump, last week, to build a detention field at the Naval Base, with the capacity to house up to 30,000 people. According to the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, the field in Guantanamo will serve for the “temporary transit” of migrants while their documents are processed and their transfers are organized.
According to a report of the Washington Postan official of the National Security Department (DHS) indicated that between nine and ten individuals considered “dangerous criminals” had been sent on a flight operated by the Department of Defense towards Guantanamo.
Trump has insisted that this measure seeks to stop the threat of “illegal criminal foreigners.” On who would go to Guantanamo, he said: “Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust that countries retain them, we don’t want them to return, so we will send them to Guantanamo.”
In addition to the expansion in Guantanamo, the Trump administration has ordered the ICE to increase the daily arrests, with an objective of 1,200 to 1,500 arrests per day. This policy has generated diplomatic challenges, since some countries, such as Colmbia, have refused to accept deportation flights from the United States.
In this context, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced that the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, had agreed to imprison dangerous criminals in US custody, including citizens and legal residents of the United States.
Rubio, of Cuban descent, has been a key figure in the foreign policy of the Trump administration, especially in issues related to Latin America. His position has been particularly hard regarding the regimes of Cuba and Venezuela, and has defended more aggressive strategies in migratory and national security.
The total cost of migrant arrest in Guantanamo has not yet been revealed by the administration, and doubts persist about how many people will be held at the base and for how long. At the moment Marines have been sent to operate the installation.