President Donald Trump’s administration has begun to send undocumented immigrants to a detention facility located at Guantanamo Bay, a U.S. naval base, that was made after 9/11 and intended to hold prisoners who were accused of terrorism. On Jan. 4, the first flight of prisoners arrived at the facility, a total of ten immigrants. However, Trump tends to blur the lines that all undocumented immigrants fall under the same category: generalizing them as criminals that endanger Americans.
According to an unidentified senior White House official, the group consisted of suspected members of the Tren de Aragua — a gang that originates from Venezuela’s prisons. The detainees were flown from the Fort Bliss Army base along the Mexico-Texas border to the detention facility in Cuba. Trump said the facility is meant to house “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”
Sticking to his passion for mass deportation, Trump has ordered the expansion of the prison to hold 30,000 people. It is difficult to believe America suddenly has that many criminal illegal immigrants — the individual has no proper documentation and are involved in illegal activity — since the U.S. has been using the facility for decades as the Guantanamo Migrant Operation Center. Would one not think that by now that the prison would be housing more criminals.
Listening to Trump, a known liar in politics, both The White House and Pentagon have been silent about who will be officially detained at Guantanamo who are not criminals, including what legal rights they will be given. Regardless of their immigration status, they still have the rights of due process under the Fifth amendment and equal protection under the law under the Fourteenth Amendment.
It is saddening to think that Trump truly only cares about making America great again, to be inhumane to send various illegal immigrants, right next to a high-level security prison. To live in tents, for who knows how long because as long as they are out of America, their legal rights will now take, to Trump, 3-10 business years in order for them to be properly processed.
The question of sustainability of the prison comes to rise. Initially, the prison is meant to hold a total of 200 people, and due to its ageing overtime, it requires repairs. Former president Joe Biden’s administration estimated the total price needed to upgrade the facility to be $15 million. However, with Biden’s proposed upgrades, it still would not expand the capacity.
With all Trump’s demands to expand the facility, no plans have been made to fix the needed precautions to better the facility. Which in turn is placing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement under more serious financial trouble, due to facing a $230 million budget shortage before Trump took office again. Now with his demands, ICE is facing a $500 million budget shortage because of its operations- including detaining and deporting – costing $8.7 billion annually.
It is no surprise that Trump points his finger at all he wants to change, regardless of the cost and damage to those affected by his choices. It is evident that sending 30,000 immigrants, disregarding if they have committed a crime or not, is doing more damage than good for his beloved America.
