SANTA FE, N.M. – Practically 200 Venezuelan immigrants to the U.S. had been returned to their dwelling nation after being detained at Guantanamo Bay, in a flurry of flights that cast an unprecedented pathway for U.S. deportations.
U.S. and Venezuelan authorities confirmed the deportations that relied on a stopover in Honduras, the place 177 Venezuelans exited a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement flight and boarded a Venezuelan aircraft certain for Caracas.
The federal government of President Nicolás Maduro mentioned it had “requested the repatriation of a gaggle” of Venezuelans “who had been unjustly taken” to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. With the request accepted, an plane with the state-owned airline Conviasa picked up the migrants from Honduras. ICE confirmed the switch of 177 “Venezuelan unlawful aliens.”
The administration of President Donald Trump has positioned a excessive precedence on deporting individuals who have exhausted all authorized appeals to remain within the U.S. Practically 1.5 million had closing removing orders as of Nov. 24, in response to ICE figures, together with greater than 22,000 Venezuelans.
In a courtroom submitting Thursday, federal immigration and army authorities mentioned that “Venezuela has traditionally resisted accepting repatriation of its residents however has just lately begun accepting removals following high-level political discussions and an funding of great sources.”
Final week, two Venezuelan flights carried 190 immigrants instantly from the U.S. to Venezuela in a rare moment of coordination between the 2 international locations which may be giving technique to common exchanges.
Thursday’s courtroom submitting by U.S. Justice Division attorneys offers essentially the most thorough official accounting thus far about who’s being held on the remoted Guantanamo Bay army advanced and why — noting that detainees as of Wednesday had been Venezuelans with closing orders of deportation.
Extra immigrant switch flights arrived at Guantanamo Bay on Thursday in planes departing from Texas and Louisiana, mentioned Thomas Cartwright of Witness on the Border, an advocacy group that tracks deportation flights.
Trump in January mentioned he wished to broaden immigrant detention amenities at Guantanamo to carry as many as 30,000 folks, though the present capability at Guantanamo’s low-security migrant operations middle is roughly 2,500.
The naval base is finest recognized for housing suspects taken in after the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults, however it additionally has been used for holding folks caught attempting to illegally attain the U.S. by boat and to coordinate the resettlement of immigrants within the U.S.
Authorities initiated on Feb. 4 near-daily flights from a U.S. Military base in West Texas to Guantanamo. By Wednesday, 51 of the newly arrived immigrants had been being held in low-security tent amenities, whereas 127 extra had been confined to a high-security space. The tally in detention after Thursday’s switch flights.
The departments of Homeland Safety and Protection are defending their capacity to maneuver immigrants out and in of Guantanamo Bay with little or no discover to the general public and authorized representatives.
They argued in Thursday’s courtroom submitting that the latest detainees at Guantanamo don’t have a proper to authorized counsel as a result of all of them are topic to closing orders of removing to Venezuela, affording them “very restricted due course of rights.”
Kinfolk of the brand new Guantanamo detainees and advocacy teams have accused the U.S. authorities of holding immigrants with out entry to counsel or any technique of vindicating their rights, amid unsubstantiated or disputed accusations of legal ties. They are saying immigrants with closing removing orders ought to nonetheless be capable of problem circumstances of confinement and doable mistreatment in detention and search launch within the U.S. if efforts to deport them drag on too lengthy.
U.S. authorities haven’t publicly confirmed the person identities of immigrants just lately held at Guantanamo Bay.
A lawsuit on behalf of three immigrants detained at Guantanamo seeks a courtroom order for authorities to supply unmonitored phone and in-person entry to authorized counsel for folks held at Guantanamo, in addition to advance discover earlier than immigrants are transferred to Guantanamo or eliminated to different international locations.
A U.S. District Courtroom in Washington, D.C., has directed authorities to supply cellphone entry to authorized counsel, and authorities at Guantanamo mentioned in Thursday’s courtroom submitting that they’ve complied, whereas pushing again towards different calls for together with communication between detainees and kin.
The Departments of Homeland Safety and Protection “are usually not presently providing the chance for in-person visits to immigration detainees at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay however will proceed to judge whether or not to increase this feature in mild of great logistical challenges, the supply of different technique of counsel communication, and the anticipated quick length of immigration detainee stays.”
Legal professional Lee Gelernt of the ACLU — among the many plaintiffs difficult detention practices at Guantanamo — mentioned Thursday’s deportations had been performed with a troubling lack of transparency.
Trump earlier, in January, signaled that some migrants could possibly be held indefinitely at Guantanamo.
“A few of them are so unhealthy that we don’t even belief the international locations to carry them as a result of we don’t need them coming again, so we’re gonna ship ’em out to Guantanamo,” Trump mentioned.
The U.S. authorities has alleged that Venezuelan immigrants transferred to the naval base are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in a jail within the South American nation and accompanied an exodus of Venezuelans so far as Chile and the U.S. Trump and his allies have turned the gang into the face of the alleged menace posed by immigrants dwelling within the nation illegally and formally designated it a “international terrorist group” this week.
Maduro’s authorities mentioned Thursday that the nation “will all the time battle terrorism and legal organizations of any sort, whereas denouncing the manipulation of those components for political ends and rejecting any try to criminalize the nation and its residents.”
Authorities in a number of international locations have reported arrests of Tren de Aragua members, even because the Maduro authorities claims to have eradicated that group.
Kinfolk of immigrants just lately taken to Guantanamo Bay and civil rights advocates say they’ve been left guessing about precisely who has been transferred there, as they sew collectively reviews by immigrants in detention about folks being led away from holding cells at an ICE processing middle in El Paso, Texas. A web based detainee locator is of restricted use, they are saying.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
