200 US soldiers arrive at Guantanamo as obscure migrant arrests surge
2 Min Read
Donald Trump's immigration arrests have prompted the preparation of a detention center in Guantanamo Bay with hundreds of soldiers expected to arrive for service.
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In this photo reviewed by US military officials, flags fly at half-staff at Camp Justice, Aug. 29, 2021, in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP)
Around 200 Marines and soldiers arrived at Guantanamo Bay over the weekend to enhance security and start establishing a new tent city for migrants, as officials follow President Donald Trump’s directive to prepare the Navy base for up to 30,000 deportees.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that 7,400 arrests have been made over nine days only. However, federal officials failed to provide details for thousands of cases, particularly the alleged crimes the migrants have supposedly committed.
Although ICE and the White House claimed further information would be published, only 80 cases were disclosed. Charges include immigration violations, assaults, crimes involving children, and drug and weapons charges, as per revisions by The New York Times.
Located near the southeastern tip of the Cuban island, Guantanamo is infamous for its US detention facilities, shrouded in secrecy and associated with grave human rights violations.
It is set to undergo its most significant transformation since the Pentagon established its wartime prison there following the September 11, 2001, attacks, necessitating a substantial increase in personnel and supplies.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel commented on Trump's order to expand the detention facility, condemning the decision as an "act of brutality" and arguing that thousands of migrants that the administration "forcibly expels" will be placed "next to well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention."
Carrying out the president’s order could tenfold the base’s population due to the additional staff required to run the encampment. The encampment is located in an unoccupied section of the base, far from the prison, commissary, school, and residential neighborhoods where service members and their families live.
In response to Trump’s directive, US forces have set up 50 Army-green tents within a fenced enclosure next to the Migrant Operations Center, a barracks-style building.
The first group of approximately 50 Marines arrived Saturday night from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, followed by another 50 on Sunday.
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