During an interview with the media, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reaffirmed the Defense Department's commitment to working with other federal agencies to strengthen security along the southern border. "On the very first day, you saw from [President Donald J. Trump's] executive orders the commitment of the military ... to protect the territorial sovereignty of the southern border, which is a shift," Hegseth said. Cuba rejects the US decision to imprison migrants at the Guantánamo naval base.
After highlighting some of the steps the Defense Department has taken to increase border security - including working with the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, sending National Guard and active-duty Marine Corps troops to the border, and reinforcing the border with additional physical barriers - Hegseth spoke about the detention of criminal migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Earlier in the day, the President announced his intention to sign an executive order directing the Department of Defense and the Department of Health to prepare Guantanamo Bay for the detention of 30,000 criminal migrants.
"President Trump [migrants' countries of origin] very clearly said that if [they are not] willing to take [your] criminals back... then we will hold you accountable." Hegseth said.
Pointing out that he served as an officer at Guantanamo Bay in 2004-2005 while on active duty with the National Guard, Hegseth said Guantanamo Bay is an "ideal place" to safely detain migrants. He clarified that detaining migrants would not necessarily require the high level of security used to detain terrorism suspects during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"What Americans mean by 'Gitmo' is the images you see on the screen: a detention facility with Taliban and Al Qaeda people... That's one part of Guantanamo," Hegseth explained.
Hegseth said the other part of the facility is a U.S. naval station that has been resettling migrants and refugees for decades.
According to the official website of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, the base has been used throughout its history for, among other things "migrant operations, regional humanitarian aid and disaster relief".
"These are not camps," Hegseth repeated. "This is a temporary transit that is already the mission of the Guantanamo Naval Station, where we can plus-up thousands - and tens of thousands if necessary - to humanely move illegals from our country where they don't belong [and] back to the countries they came from in due process."
Hegseth called the Guantanamo operation a "plan in motion" and also said the Defense Department is "ramping up efforts" to expand the scope of deportations.
"President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country," Hegseth said. "And the Department of Defense is not only willing - proud of it - to work with the Department of Defense to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and to advance that mission."
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Cuba rejects the decision by the President of the United States to use the Guantánamo naval base to imprison tens of thousands of migrants whom he has proposed forcibly expelling. This is a demonstration of the brutality with which this government is acting to allegedly correct the problems that have arisen as a result of the economic and social conditions in this country, its own governance and foreign policy, including hostility towards countries of origin.
Many of the people the U.S. has deported or plans to deport are victims of this administration's predatory policies and fill labor needs that have historically existed in agriculture, construction, industry, services, and other sectors of the U.S. economy. Others are the result of border facilitation, selective and politically motivated rules that admit them as refugees, and the socioeconomic damage caused by unilateral enforcement measures.
A significant portion of them contribute and have contributed to the U.S. economy. They have jobs, homes, have started families, and have planned their lives in the United States.
The territory in which their imprisonment is proposed does not belong to the United States. It is part of Cuban territory in the eastern province of Guantánamo, which remains under illegal military occupation and against the will of the Cuban people. This military facility is internationally designated, among other things, because it is a centre for torture and indefinite detention, outside the jurisdiction of US courts, where people are held for up to 20 years without ever being tried or convicted of any crime.
Its irresponsible use would create a scenario of risk and insecurity in and around this illegal enclave; it would endanger peace and allow mistakes, accidents and misinterpretations that could alter stability and cause serious consequences.
pentagon/ cubaminrex/ gnews - RoZ
ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO - pixabay
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