U.S. holding detainees from Asia, Africa and Europe at Guantanamo Bay immigration amenities | USAEMALL.com

The Trump administration recently transferred immigration detainees from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean to detention facilities at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, dramatically expanding the nationalities of those held there, internal U.S. government records obtained by CBS News show.

As of earlier this week, Guantanamo Bay’s immigration detainees — who are detained separately from the terrorism suspects also held at the U.S. military base — included nationals of China, Jamaica, Liberia and the United Kingdom, according to the federal documents.

Two U.S. officials said most of those detained at the base are considered to be “high-risk” detainees, who are defined by immigration authorities as individuals with violent or otherwise serious criminal records, histories of disruptive behavior or alleged gang ties.

The transfers, which had not been previously reported, signal a significant expansion in the Trump administration’s efforts to turn parts of Guantanamo Bay into immigration detention facilities to hold foreigners facing deportation.

Since President Trump ordered his administration to detain “high-priority” foreigners with criminal records at the base earlier this year, the facilities there have mainly housed Spanish-speaking Latin American detainees from countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela before their formal deportation.

But the decision to use Guantanamo Bay to hold immigration detainees from more far-flung nations in Africa, Asia and Europe underscores the broad scope of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

A defense official told CBS News there were 54 immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday.

It’s unclear why exactly the administration decided to transfer detainees from Asia, Africa and Europe to Guantanamo Bay. But the immigration detention system in the U.S. is well over its congressionally funded capacity, as ICE has increased efforts throughout the country to arrest immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

In early June, Politico reported that officials were vetting thousands of detainees from different countries, including European allies, for a potential transfer to Guantanamo Bay, a report that the White House denied at the time.

Representatives for the Departments of Homeland Security and State did not answer a series of questions, including on whether the African, Asian and European detainees are expected to be deported from Guantanamo Bay.

The Trump administration’s use of Guantanamo Bay to further its mass deportation agenda has garnered strong criticism and legal challenges from civil rights advocates, who argue the government does not have the authority to hold immigration detainees outside of the U.S. The base, which sits on Cuban land, was controversial before it became an immigration holding center, due to the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects, some of whom faced torture and abuse.

While top Trump administration officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller have repeatedly highlighted the detention efforts at Guantanamo Bay, they have provided scant public information on operations at the base and who is being sent there.  

Reporting by CBS News and other news organizations has confirmed that the administration has sent both detainees deemed to be “high-risk” and “low-risk” to Guantanamo Bay, including Venezuelan men whose relatives have denied accusations that they were gang members.

Those classified as “high-risk” have been detained at Guantanamo Bay’s Camp VI, a part of the post-9/11 prison that still holds roughly a dozen terrorism suspects, though in a separate section of the complex. 

The “low-risk” detainees — who by definition lack a serious criminal record or any record at all, beyond civil immigration violations — have been housed at the Migrant Operations Center, a barrack-like facility on the base historically used to accommodate asylum-seekers interdicted at sea.

CBS News also revealed in May an internal government memo showing that officials created a broad set of criteria for who could be sent to Guantanamo Bay that did not mention criminality, despite the president saying that only individuals who he called “the worst” would be held at the base.

The Department of Defense told Congress in May that as of April 8 it had spent $21 million flying immigration detainees to Guantanamo Bay, or more than $26,000 per flight hour.

As of Tuesday, the base’s Camp 6 prison and Migrant Operations Center were housing 41 and 13 detainees, respectively, a defense official said.

The Trump administration has sought to send a message of deterrence by using or proposing controversial detention centers like Guantanamo Bay to hold those accused of violating U.S. immigration law. 

In March, the administration flew more than 200 Venezuelans it labeled gang members to El Salvador, which imprisoned them at CECOT, its infamous maximum-security prison. More recently, the Trump administration has announced it is working with Florida state officials to set up an immigration detention center in the wetlands of the Everglades. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump visited the facility, which officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”