Trump Admin moves migrants from Guantanamo to U.S. detention after failing to meet ICE requirements

The New York Times revealed that all the migrants being held at the base in Guantanamo, on the island of Cuba, were transferred to the state of Louisiana in the last two days, despite the executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump, whose purpose was to instruct the Department of Homeland Security and Defense to prepare a migrant detention center at the Guantanamo prison with a capacity of 30,000 people.

The media outlet detailed that Republican Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed that the main reason behind this action was that the facilities provided to house 500 migrants did not meet the requirements demanded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for migrant detention, such as air conditioning and other amenities.

Officials added that each of the last 41 migrants who were housed in various tents were returned to Louisiana as of Monday and added, according to the Times, that the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department would be debating whether to continue using the Guantanamo base. Similarly, the newspaper explained that there are no military flights scheduled to move more migrants to the Guantanamo base until at least Friday.

Relocation of personnel

The daily also added that these Trump Administration officials revealed that the possibility of relocating some of the U.S. troops who were sent to Guantanamo to different missions on the country's southern border is currently being studied. The troops sent to the famous detention center located in Cuba had the mission of preparing and adapting it for the arrival of up to 30,000 migrants. However, the number of arrivals ended up being considerably lower than expected, with different media outlets explaining how some members of the administration were skeptical of the measure due to the high expense it represented.

The last 41 migrants who were returned to Louisiana returned to U.S. soil via non-military aircraft. The detention center to which they were transferred in Louisiana is located in the city of Alexandria and is under the control of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.