New shiny keys. Don’t forget all the other atrocities. Eye on the ball.
Via Aaron Rupar:
#Trump says he's signing an order to build a migrant detention camp in Guantanamo Bay
@GottaLaff That's a moneyhole. They can put a few people in GTMO but it's a stupid idea. This is indeed just a shiny thing that'll fizzle out. The camps will be in the U.S. & owned by private prison contractors that Congress members own stock in.
@Nonya_Bidniss You win the day
This would be his second bite at that apple. Trump proposed the same thing, including imprisoning children there, during his first reign - er, administration.
Anybody recall what happened to that idea?
https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/ive-been-guantanamo-its-no-place-kids
@ginaintheburg @GottaLaff
According to WAPO it may be holding migrants right now. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/30/guantanamo-bay-migrants-history-trump/
Has it been used to house migrants before?
U.S. government agencies and private contractors have used facilities at Guantánamo Bay to detain asylum seekers and refugees for several decades, rights groups say
In 1994, for instance, President Bill Clinton resumed the previous administration’s use of the Guantánamo base for processing Haitian refugees and later ordered Cuban asylum seekers caught at sea to be held on the base. Later that same year, the facility’s migrant population totaled 45,000, according to a government report.
Last year, the International Refugee Assistance Project released a report accusing the U.S.-run Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo Bay, or GMOC, of detaining migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean countries throughout its history. Many of those refugees are intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard at sea and then “detained indefinitely in prison-like conditions without access to the outside world,” often “with little to no transparency or accountability,” the report said.
“These refugees are forced to endure this treatment until a third country agrees to accept them for resettlement, even if they have family in the United States,” it said, adding that the process can take years.
IRAP accused the U.S. government of subjecting detained migrants to “a multitude of health and human rights violations,” including “substandard living conditions, abusive guards and forced medical procedures including forcibly administering birth control.”
It’s unclear how many migrants and refugees are currently detained at GMOC, the IRAP said.
Thank you so much for this comprehensive, albeit terrible, history & analysis.
I thought migrants were already being held at Guantanamo, but couldn't find a quick verification on Google. Maybe worded my query incorrectly, searching for Gitmo instead of Guantanamo.
@ginaintheburg Maybe because it's pronounced gitmo but it's written GTMO. I used Guantanamo. @GottaLaff
Good to know! I just did a search on GTMO and came up with the WaPo story (tho the title & first paragraphs didn't feature GTMO at all - just Guantanamo Bay):
It wasn't the top return, but it was up there. It's all been published since Trump 2.0, but then that's Google for you.
"Migrants were detained at Guantánamo Bay before Trump’s order. Here’s what to know."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/30/guantanamo-bay-migrants-history-trump/
@Nonya_Bidniss @ginaintheburg @GottaLaff that’s disgusting!