What We Know About the Secretive Migrant Mission at Guantánamo Bay
The New York Times
The Trump administration has said little about the Venezuelan men who were transferred from Texas to the U.S. military base in Cuba.
The Trump administration has moved more than 175 men from an immigration holding site in Texas to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay. All have been described as Venezuelans who have been issued final deportation orders. But it is not known why these men in particular were sent there.
Waves of migrants, including thousands of Haitians and Cubans, have been housed at the base over the years. But it is better known as a prison for wartime detainees captured after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Because of that legacy, Guantánamo Bay sometimes evokes the idea of indefinite detention without charge, a legal black hole with no way out.
Here are some of the things we have learned about the migrant mission so far.
On Jan. 29, President Trump ordered the Defense and Homeland Security Departments to prepare the base to receive up to 30,000 migrants.
Satellite imagery shows that tents have been going up near a building that was used for migrant operations in the past.
As of Tuesday, the military said there were about 850 troops and civilians assigned to migrant operations, more than 700 of them in the U.S. military.
