‘Nobody really knows what’s going on’: US officials scramble to expand Guantanamo Bay for migrants

By Priscilla Alvarez and Haley Britzky, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department are racing to set up multiple tent facilities in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to house thousands of migrants, but the scattered efforts have prompted questions internally about who’s in charge and what will happen once people arrive on site.

The unprecedented move to transfer migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay has involved multiple federal agencies – including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection – each with their own set of expertise and responsibilities.

While DHS and DOD have worked together on border security missions before, doing so at Guantanamo has been a steep challenge roiled by confusion, sources told CNN.

“Nobody really knows what’s going on, between DOD, ICE, and CBP. We’ve got everybody pointing fingers, saying, ‘They’re in charge,’ ‘They’re paying for this,’ ‘They’re providing security.’ No one actually knows,” one source with knowledge of the planning said.

Last week, the Trump administration began transporting migrants to Guantanamo Bay on US military aircraft, a move that has sparked backlash from immigrant advocates and a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union over migrants’ lack of access to legal representation.

As of Wednesday, there had been seven military flights transferring 98 migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay, according to federal data shared with CNN.

“There should have been a greater degree of planning before the execution. Now execution has begun, and everyone is trying to back into planning,” another source with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

“Everybody is fighting for command and control and direction,” the source added.

It’s unclear how the administration is choosing people to be transferred. So far, all have been men and all deemed to have what was described as “criminality,” one source familiar said, ranging from being alleged members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang to more basic immigration law violations.

“In addition to holding violent gang members and other high-threat illegal aliens, Guantanamo Bay is also holding other illegal aliens with final deportation orders. Every single alien at Guantanamo Bay has a final deportation order,” a senior Homeland Security official said in a statement to CNN, adding: “All these individuals committed a crime by entering the United States illegally.”

High-risk detainees are being held in the base’s maximum-security prison, while others with final removal orders are being held at the migrant operations center, the official said.

Over the weekend, a federal court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants who hadn’t been selected for Guantanamo but, immigrant advocacy groups argued, fit the profile that administration was targeting.

“My goal is that people are not in these facilities for weeks and months. My goal is that there is a short-term stay, they are able to incarcerate them, take them, follow the process and get them back to their country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CNN’s Dana Bash. Noem visited Guantanamo Bay over the weekend to assess the emerging tent facilities.

But sources with knowledge of the process told CNN there hasn’t been a clear plan provided for what happens to people once they arrive at the base, including when they’ll be transferred to their home countries.

Officials are preparing to house all demographics, barring children. Not all countries are quick to take back their nationals, though. Some countries receive multiple deportation flights in a given week, while others don’t. And while Venezuela has restarted repatriation flights, they also briefly did so under former President Joe Biden before abruptly halting them.

“Nobody has talked about timeframes,” one of the sources said.

For decades, there’s been a migrant operation center at Guantanamo for people interdicted at sea, not brought from US soil. Those individuals have typically been quickly repatriated.

There are currently over 700 military personnel supporting the efforts at Guantanamo. The tent structures – lined up side-by-side to house up to 100 people apiece – are being built in anticipation of 30,000 people being transferred there.

Questions remain, however, about who will provide security at the site. White House border czar Tom Homan previously said ICE would run the facility, but the agency is also strapped for resources. A US official agreed ICE would be in charge of more personal monitoring of the migrants, but that DOD could eventually take on broader security responsibilities.

There’s also confusion about who would have custody: DHS or DOD. And given the strict guidelines and authorities for military personnel to interact with migrants and perform law enforcement activities, the ambiguity raised concerns about what the military could be tasked with in the future, one of the sources familiar with the planning said.

“No one’s really too concerned or worried about it now, because it’s gang members from Venezuela going to Guantanamo, and the average American is probably fine with that. But once we start blurring that line, it just gets dangerous,” the source said.

One of the primary concerns among immigrant advocate is the lack of legal access to the site.

Wednesday’s lawsuit from the ACLU seeks immediate in-person access to migrant detainees, as well as video and telephone access. Plaintiffs include some family members of Gitmo detainees and legal organizations who want access to offer representation.

“For the first time ever, immigrants are being shipped to Guantanamo from the United States and denied access to lawyers. This unprecedented move is shocking and should worry everyone who thinks of the United States as a country guided by the rule of law,” said Lee Gelernt, ACLU attorney and lead counsel in the case.

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