The Trump administration has begun flying undocumented immigrants from the US to a military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Tuesday.
Leavitt told Fox Business Network that at least two deportation flights were “under way”, but gave no further details.
Her comments, however, appeared to confirm reporting by the Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous official with knowledge of the operation, that about a dozen immigrants were onboard one flight from Fort Bliss, Texas. The newspaper said an additional flight had departed on Monday.
CNN later reported one of the flights had “about nine or 10” people onboard who were detained in the US without valid immigration documents.
Obama could have pardoned the prisoners and apologized for holding them for many years without trial, in blatant violation of the plain text in the US Constitution.
Non-citizens detained in war don’t have the same rights as US citizens.
Some of those people were guilty and should have been tried and jailed here (provided they could safely be held here).
if so, why weren’t they tried and sentenced?
At least part of the reason is the people captured in the war on terror occupied a legal gray area. They are sort of like soldiers, so they are not subject to American civil or criminal law. But they don’t belong to a military organization with a formal chain of command, so they are not signatories to the Geneva Convention or any other treaties concerning conduct in war.
Even if they were tried and found guilty in a military court for ‘being terrorists’, eventually their prison sentences would end. So what do we do with them now? A lot of their home countries didn’t want them back (although now the Taliban government of Afghanistan will probably take back their citizens).
Basically, the entire Gitmo internment of fighters captured in the war on terror was a great big mess. It was really easy for Obama and Biden to say on the campaign trail that they would shut down Gitmo, but actually dealing with the prisoners in a politically acceptable way was very, very difficult. It was easier to hope people would forget about them.
BTW - some Gitmo detainees did get released over the years.
Because placing them in Guantanamo meant no one had to actually figure out where/how to house these people safely.
Isn’t that what jails are for? in USA you have a ton of those I hear… if these people were guilty of anything, surely there would be zero trouble charging them (specially in the Kangaroo Military courts of the USA). Once convicted you can put them in any jail of your liking
Yes, and keeping these people safe in US federal prisons was going to be difficult. Many of them would have been murdered/assaulted due to how poorly the US manages the prison system.
So instead they are kept uncharged and untried forever in Guantanamo??? where they are nicely safe and comfortable and not being tortured at all? for THEIR safety? got it
“Because placing them in Guantanamo meant no one had to actually figure out where/how to house these people safely.”
I refer you back to my initial comment
confirming circular logic is circular… got it