Trump administration appears to be pausing plans to ramp up Guantanamo transfers

Politico

a day ago

The Trump administration appears to have put on hold plans to dramatically ramp up transfers of undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay.
As of Monday, the transfers were expected to happen later in the week but were delayed in part because unrest related to immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles 'got in the way,' said an administration official. The official said it's unclear how long the plan may be shelved.
The person and others were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the discussions.
At the State Department, where many officials have urged the Department of Homeland Security to abandon the plan, there's now confusion about what comes next, according to a U.S. diplomat familiar with the situation.
State Department officials have been told that clarification about the Guantanamo transfer process is coming at some point and not to use previous guidance on what to tell reporters, the U.S. diplomat said.
The apparent delay comes after POLITICO reported Tuesday that the administration was vetting at least 9,000 migrants for transfer to the base. The proposal, if it becomes a reality, would be an exponential increase from the roughly 500 migrants who have been held for short periods at the base since February. It would also be a major step toward realizing a plan President Donald Trump announced in January to use the facility to hold as many as 30,000 migrants found to be in the U.S. illegally.
On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X that reports of the plan were incorrect. 'Not happening,' she said.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, when asked Thursday about the apparent delay, said: 'That's not true. It was never a plan to begin with.'
The proposal was designed primarily to free up bed space at detention facilities on domestic American soil, as the White House pushes Immigration and Customs Enforcement for higher arrest and deportation numbers. The agency is also tight on detention space and pressing Congress for additional funding to hire more agents and expand domestic detention capacity.
Documents obtained by POLITICO on Tuesday noted that the plan had come together only recently and could still change. The expectation was that the detainees would be at Guantanamo Bay temporarily before being deported to their countries of origin, though it's not clear how long they would be held at the U.S. naval base.
U.S. diplomats have been particularly worried about plans to include some 800 Europeans in the group to be transferred. They worry it could strain alliances with European nations that are typically cooperative in taking back deportees.
Many European officials have been blindsided by the plans. Italy's foreign minister has said his country is doing 'everything' it can to prevent its citizens from being sent there. According to documents seen by POLITICO, at least two Italians are under consideration for a transfer to Guantanamo.
The U.S. facility at Guantanamo, which is on Cuban soil but has been a U.S. naval base for many years, grew notorious because it has been used to hold terrorism suspects detained after the 9/11 attacks.
Immigrant rights groups have sued the Trump administration in recent months in a bid to block its use of Guantanamo to house immigrant detainees. A federal class-action lawsuit pending in Washington indicates that there are roughly 70 immigrant detainees currently held there and facing 'punitive' conditions, such as insufficient food, weekly changes of clothes and rodent infestation.