Trump to use Guantanamo Bay prison to hold 30,000 migrants
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it is likely that personnel from DHS will be responsible for the migrants themselves. It is unclear how the facility will be funded.
On Tuesday, the US military said that it would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado.
Loading
The decisions come on top of US military deportation flights and the deployment of just over 1600 active-duty troops to the US border with Mexico following Trump’s emergency declaration on immigration last week.
The administration on Tuesday also cancelled former president Joe Biden’s extension of Temporary Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans already in the US. The 18-month extension of TPS would have shielded Venezuelan migrants from being sent back to their country and allowed them to work legally in the US. The Biden administration announced the extension days before leaving office.
“We stopped that,” Noem said on Fox News. “We signed an executive order within the Department of Homeland Security that we are not going to follow through on what they did to tie our hands.”
The TPS program was expanded aggressively under Biden, who used it to shield people from countries seen as unstable, such as Haiti, El Salvador and Ukraine. Trump’s decision to revoke the extension for Venezuelans was reported earlier by The New York Times.
In the last several years, Venezuelans have ranked among the largest groups of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border without authorisation to ask for asylum. While the TPS program for the South American country initially enjoyed broad support, it later became a target of Republicans who argued that it has been granted too liberally and acts as a draw to migrants.
Loading
Florida, Texas and New York are home to the largest population of individuals with TPS, with about half the total recipients coming from Venezuela. Patricia Andrade, of Miami-based non-profit Raíces Venezolanas (Venezuelan Roots), has been advising TPS holders to apply for other visas and alternative immigration options.
“Many of those who received TPS have already opted for asylum or an immigrant visa, but others are still waiting for these new visas,” she said. “These are the people we are concerned about.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s budget office has rescinded an order to freeze spending on federal loans and grants, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country, less than two days after it sparked widespread confusion and legal challenges across the country.
Loading
The memo, which was issued Monday by the Office of Management and Budget, had frightened states, schools and organisations that rely on trillions of dollars from Washington.
Administration officials said the pause was necessary to review whether spending aligned with Trump’s executive orders on issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
But on Wednesday, they sent out a two-sentence notice rescinding the original memo. The reversal was the latest sign that even with unified control of Washington, Trump’s plans to dramatically and rapidly reshape the government has limits.
A district judge had earlier blocked the order until at least Monday afternoon.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the president’s orders on controlling federal spending.”
Bloomberg, Reuters, AP
