The U.S. military is now housing about 68 detainees at its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of an effort to assist the Department of Homeland Security with mass deportations.
The commander of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, shared the updated figure with lawmakers Wednesday, but said he could not yet provide details on how much it will cost to house the growing number of individuals.
Admiral Alvin Holsey said those efforts include both the detention of individuals described by DHS officials as “high-threat criminal aliens” and eventually holding up to 30,000 non-violent migrants slated for deportation.
“We’re doing a phased approach,” Holsey told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, adding that the base has the capacity now to hold about 2,500 non-violent migrants.
“We’re working with DHS to understand the flow of migrants,” he said. “We’re not going to go to 30,000 unless we know that migrant flow will come. So, we’re waiting at this point.”
U.S. Transportation Command told VOA on Monday that there have been at least five flights of migrants to Guantanamo Bay, each aboard a C-17 or C-130 military cargo plane.
Most of the flights, according to multiple officials, have carried between 10 and 15 detainees.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited the prison facility last Friday and oversaw the transfer of the third flight of detainees to the detention center, has repeatedly described the men as “murderers and vicious gang members” from Venezuela and as “the worst of the worst.”
In one social media post, Noem said that at least one of the migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay had confessed to murder, while others were wanted for attempted murder, assault, weapons trafficking and impersonation.
One official, speaking to VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss the deportation efforts, said that all of the individuals held at Guantanamo Bay have been issued final deportation orders. But DHS has not yet provided charging documents or other details regarding the crimes the detainees are accused of committing.
On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union, along with several immigration rights groups, filed a lawsuit against DHS, alleging the detainees being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility have been improperly denied access to lawyers.
“By hurrying immigrants off to a remote island cut off from lawyers, family, and the rest of the world, the Trump administration is sending its clearest signal yet that the rule of law means nothing to it,” according to a statement from ACLU lead attorney Lee Gelernt.
“It will now be up to the courts to reaffirm that the rule of law governs our nation,” he added.
According to the ACLU and the other groups, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Eucaris Carolina Gomez Lugo, learned her brother had been sent to Guantanamo Bay only after seeing him in a photo.
The group also said she was shocked to learn that the government was alleging he was a member of the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan street gang.
DHS dismissed the lawsuit’s allegations.
“There is a system for phone utilization to reach lawyers,” said a senior Homeland Security official in a written statement shared with VOA.
“If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union cares more about highly dangerous criminal aliens including murderers & vicious gang members than they do about American citizens—they should change their name,” the official added, responding to the lawsuit only on the condition of anonymity.