Government documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit reveal the Trump administration's improvised approach to establishing migrant detention operations at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Emails between Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff show workers scrambling to provide religious materials, arrange pastoral care, and train military personnel for immigration duties after officials ordered facilities capable of holding 30,000 detainees in tent cities.
The site held just 178 migrants at its peak and processed slightly over 700 men total before operations ceased. Records indicate four detainees contracted Covid while health staff, psychologists, and a chaplain attended to predominantly Catholic and Christian Venezuelan men housed in a former terrorism suspect prison and dormitory facility.
Internal correspondence described difficulties obtaining vetted individuals for detention and unexplained halts in Venezuelan deportations. American Oversight, which secured the 84 partly redacted pages, characterized the materials as evidence of chaotic planning without regard for humanitarian consequences.
The site held just 178 migrants at its peak and processed slightly over 700 men total before operations ceased. Records indicate four detainees contracted Covid while health staff, psychologists, and a chaplain attended to predominantly Catholic and Christian Venezuelan men housed in a former terrorism suspect prison and dormitory facility.
Internal correspondence described difficulties obtaining vetted individuals for detention and unexplained halts in Venezuelan deportations. American Oversight, which secured the 84 partly redacted pages, characterized the materials as evidence of chaotic planning without regard for humanitarian consequences.
