Undocumented Irish in US could be deported to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba

Irish Daily Mirror

a day ago

The undocumented Irish in the US could be deported to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as Donald Trump's war on illegal immigrants intensifies, it's emerged.
The cruel plans, which were first reported by the Washington Post, declared thousands of foreign nationals could be sent to the US military base in Cuba as early as this week.
These include those from what are considered 'friendly European nations,' such as Britain, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, and Turkey.
The infamous facility came to international prominence after it began housing suspected terrorists along with others rounded up in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks - only a small handful remain.
The harsh conditions inside the facility have been slammed by agencies such as Amnesty International.
It has been described as a 'symbol of torture' where inmates face indefinite detention without charge or trial - specifically set up to get around US law.
Former top New York Immigration lawyer Brian O'Dwyer, who also founded the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, believes the plan could actually happen.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, he said: 'Given this administration, absolutely.
'Most of the people who were originally put in Guantanamo Bay have either been sent back to their own country or some of them have actually died. There are not many of them left.
'It's a very small number. So there's this big facility; they could absolutely put a couple of hundred people in.'
He continued: ''(Before the election) the Irish who were supporting Trump were saying 'he's going to deport the Latinos', we now know that there's no special category for Irish in the Trump administration.
'They're being treated like everybody else and that's very badly.'
Mr O'Dwyer also said the current policy seems to move those detained to facilities located hours away from where they live.
He explained: 'We've known that they've taken people who are ready to be deported and kept them in a number of different places in the United States.
'That's their kind of modus operandi. They take them away from their own home state and their own home support services.
'Somebody from New York City would be taken five hours away to a different detention facility.'
The lawyer, who has since retired, said in all his years working on immigration cases, he has never seen anything like what's currently unfolding in the US.
He continued: 'There have been times when people have cracked down on immigration; I understand that.
'But no one has ever come up with the deliberate cruelty that this administration has on human beings who are here in the United States without papers.
'This is a deliberate act of cruelty to discourage people.'
Mr O'Dwyer said the Trump administration has been heaping pressure on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency known as ICE to ramp up detainees.
He said this has led to law-abiding citizens who were undocumented being picked up instead of dangerous criminals.
Mr O'Dwyer added: 'They are taking people who are basically complying with the law and filing their taxes and going to the immigration courts; they're the low-hanging fruit, and they're easy to pick off.
'Who they're really going after is law-abiding people who are doing their work, and that's the Irish.'
He said undocumented members of the Irish community in New York are 'terrified.'
He added: 'You're asking me all these questions and I wish I could give you the slightest glimmer of hope of anything and I can't.
'I've 50 years of experience in this, and I've never seen anything remotely close to this.
'I'd just ask everybody in the community that doesn't have regular status to keep their heads down, and hopefully, we get through it …we're going to do everything we can to help them.'
According to the Washington Post, the plan, which could change, was devised as anti-immigration hard-liners inside Trump's inner circle pushed for more deportations and arrests of undocumented migrants.
It is understood that preparations include screening for 9,000 people to decide whether they are healthy enough to be sent to the facility.
The Washington Post reports that officials within the Trump administration believe the plan is necessary to free up capacity at domestic detention facilities. These have become overcrowded since he took office earlier this year.