Despite the Farcical Collapse of His Guantánamo Migrant Plan, Trump Sends More Venezuelans to the Notorious “War on Terror” Prison

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By Andy Worthington, March 21, 2025

With casual cruelty, and a contempt for the importance of evidence and the rule of law, the Trump administration, having twice sent migrants to Guantánamo, only to subsequently remove them all, either by deporting them or bringing them back to the U.S. mainland, has just embarked on a third effort to use the extraterritorial naval base’s prison facilities to hold migrants, sending around 20 Venezuelans to await deportation, and claiming, without providing any evidence, that they are all gang members. In this article I provide a detailed review of Trump’s use of Guantánamo as a migrant prison over the last seven weeks, and in a follow-up article on my website, Horror As Trump Invokes the Alien Enemies Act, Defies a Judge and Sends Innocent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Mega-Prison, I assess and condemn an even more disturbing development: sending other Venezuelan migrants, also described as gang members, without any evidence being provided, to be held, possibly indefinitely, in El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.

On January 29, Donald Trump notoriously issued an executive order to expand an existing Migrant Detention Facility on the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — previously used to hold migrants intercepted at sea — "to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States," telling the world that the revamped facility would be used to hold up to 30,000 migrants.

Seven weeks later, only 1% of those 30,000 migrants have been sent to Guantánamo, and, until yesterday, when a new batch of around 20 men arrived, they had all been subsequently removed — either sent back to their home countries, or, humiliatingly for the Trump administration, brought back to detention facilities run by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on the U.S. mainland.

In a blaze of cruel but unsubstantiated rhetoric, the Trump administration flew 178 Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. mainland to Guantánamo on February 4 and in the weeks that followed, claiming that they were "the worst of the worst," in a deliberate echo of the malignant and unsubstantiated rhetoric used by Donald Rumsfeld when the reviled "war on terror" prison opened in January 2002.

On the basis of Trump’s executive order, these men were expected to be held in the Migrant Operations Center, which had been used to hold tens of thousands of migrants intercepted at sea in the 1990s, but which had since become a single dormitory-style building holding, at most, a few dozen migrants at any time.

Tents were rapidly erected around the existing Center to hold these men, at a cost of $3.1m, although, embarrassingly, they were not used because they lacked air conditioning and running water and failed to meet ICE’s detention standards, which they are legally obliged to uphold.

Instead, while 51 men were held in the existing dormitory-style building, the 127 other migrants were held in Camp 6 of the "war on terror" prison, even though Trump had made no mention of that in his executive order, or in his accompanying ramblings seeking to justify the use of Guantánamo to hold migrants.

While the legitimacy of using Guantánamo to hold migrants flown from the U.S. mainland was in serious doubt from the moment Trump opened his mouth to announce it, because those held on U.S. soil have inalienable rights that have never applied to migrants intercepted at sea or the foreign nationals held in the "war on terror" prison, it was abundantly clear, from the moment that it became apparent that Venezuelan migrants were being held in Camp 6, that doing so was definitively illegal.

This was because the law used to justify the establishment of the "war on terror" prison — the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed the week after the 9/11 attacks — only authorized the imprisonment of individuals allegedly associated with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or associated forces, in connection with 9/11 or other acts of related international terrorism.

Arrivals and departures

For two weeks, however, Trump and his minions blithely ignored all the indicators that their actions were fundamentally illegal, even as evidence mounted that they were lying about the men being "the worst of the worst," as family members, recognizing their relatives in photos released by the Department of Homeland Security, robustly refuted claims that they were involved with the criminal organization Tren De Aragua, which was the basis for most of Trump’s confected hysteria, and were instead, to cite just two examples, a barber and a car mechanic who, like most migrants, were guilty of nothing more than trying to enter the U.S. to find work.

On February 20, without warning, Trump suddenly emptied Guantánamo of all of its migrants, sending 177 of the 178 Venezuelans back to their home country, while the other man was sent back to a detention facility on the U.S. mainland.

On their return, journalists who tracked them down reported horrendous stories of abuse — both in Camp 6 and at the Migrant Operations Center — while they were held, including invasive strip-searches, a ban on almost all outdoor recreation time, a ban on all contact with the outside world, and an atmosphere that was so oppressive that a number of the men tried to kill themselves.

Further discrediting the Trump administration’s narrative, a Department of Homeland Security official subsequently confirmed to NBC News that, in dividing the migrants between Camp 6 and the NOC, all of the 51 men held in the MOC "were considered to be non-criminal, meaning they had committed no crime other than being present in the United States unlawfully." In addition, it should be noted that no evidence has ever been provided to demonstrate that any of the 127 men held in Camp 6 fitted Trump’s description of them as "high-priority criminal aliens."

The removal of the 128 Venezuelans looked like the decisive collapse of Trump’s ill-conceived plans, although, almost immediately, he sent more migrants to Guantánamo — 17, initially, from a range of countries including Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador.

In total, 112 men were flown to Guantánamo in the weeks following February 20, although all were subsequently sent back to the U.S. mainland, including nine on February 26, the day after they arrived, during a visit by defense secretary Pete Hegseth, which suggests that they were flown there solely to create a photo opportunity. 48 others were sent back around the same time, and the final 40 were sent back on March 12.

Legal challenges

Inevitably, Trump’s use of Guantánamo to hold migrants seized on the U.S. mainland has led to legal challenges.

On February 9, lawyers asked the District Court of New Mexico to block possible efforts by the Trump administration to send three Venezuelan men held in ICE custody in El Paso to Guantánamo. The men, part of an existing habeas corpus case before the court, feared transfer because of the similarities between their cases and others already transferred to Guantánamo. The Chief Judge, Kenneth J. Gonzales, agreed, and issued a temporary restraining order, although, in a typical act of micro-managed spite, the administration almost immediately deported them to Venezuela, rendering the case moot.

On February 12, as I wrote about here, a much more substantial lawsuit was submitted to the District Court in Washington, D.C. by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), on behalf of three Venezuelan men identified as having been transferred to Guantánamo, as well as various organizations working on immigrants’ rights. challenging the legal basis for the transfers, and seeking access to the men held.

As the lawsuit — a complaint and petition for the writ of habeas corpus — stated, "For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government has moved noncitizens apprehended and detained in the United States on civil immigration charges" to Guantánamo, and "is holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family, or the outside world."

At a subsequent hearing, the government toned down its "worst of the worst" rhetoric, admitting that around a third of the men it was holding had no criminal record whatsoever, and suggesting that they "could request to speak to lawyers by phone."

This appeared to be a victory of sorts, and it was followed by the removal of all the Venezuelans, but, as noted above, the apparent victory was short-lived, as new migrants were almost immediately flown to Guantánamo.

On March 1, as I discussed here, the ACLU, CCR and IRAP followed up with another lawsuit to the District Court in D.C., asking the Court to urgently intervene to "put a stop" to what they accurately described as the Trump administration’s "cruel, unnecessary, and illegal transfers" of migrants to Guantánamo. As they explained in a press release, transferring migrants to Guantánamo from the U.S. mainland is a policy "without any legal authority, in violation of federal law and the U.S. Constitution."

On March 14, however, when Judge Carl Nichols issued a ruling, after both of the cases discussed above had been consolidated, and arguments had been heard in court, the administration’s second conjuring act — disappearing migrants at the last minute — meant that he had little to rule on.

On the question of legal access to the men held, government lawyers said, as the Associated Press described it, that "they had taken steps to improve legal access at the island facility, such as putting up signage letting detainees known about their legal rights and allowing detainees to communicate with lawyers." For the plaintiffs, however, Lee Gelernt of the ACLU replied that "they still weren’t able to have in-person legal visits."

As the New York Times described it, another Justice Department lawyer, Sarah Wilson, "countered that the work of relocating migrants there was still too new to accommodate lawyers, given the logistical challenges and need for security clearances."

On the government’s claimed right to send migrants to Guantánamo, Judge Nichols dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim that they were "suffering irreparable harm," because none of the men were still held.

He was, however, "particularly focused on the question of whether immigration law gave the government the right to detain migrants at extraterritorial facilities," calling it "a serious question," although "he did not offer an answer to it." For the government, Drew Ensign, a Justice Department lawyer, had "argued that since immigration enforcement by definition involves moving migrants across borders, the administration could keep migrants with removal orders in American custody overseas," a practice he described as being "akin to transporting migrants over international waters from Hawaii to the mainland," or "through other countries while being deported to their home nations."

It was, to put it mildly, disappointing that Judge Nichols failed to recognize the significance of Lee Gelernt’s response, in which he called Ensign’s comparisons "misleading," pointing out that the migrants at Guantánamo "had not been in transit or in the process of being removed," and reiterating that "no prior administration had argued that immigration law gave the government the right to detain migrants extraterritorially."

The plaintiffs’ main success was a recognition, by Judge Nichols, that, if any of the men represented were moved to Guantánamo, "lawyers could demand an emergency order to bring them back to the United States, likely within days." As the Times described it, "Lawyers for the Trump administration said they would notify the judge if any plaintiffs were sent there, and were instructed to inform the court" — by this week — "of how early in the relocation process they would do so."

Chaos within the administration

Perhaps even more significantly than the legal challenges, Trump’s migrant relocation plan has sown chaos and discord within his administration, as NBC News reported on March 5, after interviews with "about a dozen people familiar with the situation at Guantánamo and the dynamics inside the administration over it."

The article highlighted the huge cost of sending migrants to Guantánamo — up to $250,000 for a C-130 military flight, which, as a defense official explained, the administration had chosen "for reasons of optics." Charter planes used by ICE are cheaper, although, as NBC News described it, "the operation is still a heavy logistical and financial lift, especially compared with keeping the detainees on the mainland."

According to a congressional official, two defense officials and a Department of Homeland Security officials, Trump’s announcement on January 29 took the DOD and the DHS by surprise, and, with no plans in place for how to detain 30,000 migrants at Guantánamo, "a power struggle between the military and ICE, which is part of DHS, quickly ensued over who would be responsible for interacting with migrants once they arrived at Guantánamo."

As NBC News described it, "Facing a budget shortfall even before Trump was sworn in, ICE has been struggling to meet the stepped-up pace of arrests and deportations Trump wants," and, although oversight of the operation fell to ICE’s Miami field office, because, as the defense officials noted, "members of the military cannot legally interact with immigrants in detention," staffing in Miami "was in short supply." The reason for this was that ICE "needed the agents who would be sent to oversee detainees at Guantánamo back on the mainland making arrests."

As a result — and, noticeably, despite the legal prohibition on members of the military interacting with immigrants in detention — the military, also "concerned that it would be blamed if the effort failed," "surged resources" to Guantánamo, sending "roughly 1,110 troops and support personnel along with equipment to support the mission even though it had not yet received clear policy guidance outlining its role" — and, as a result, ending up guarding, and clearly, in some cases, abusing the men held in Camp 6, and, to a lesser extent, in the MOC.

Absurdly, the military began "setting up thousands of tents but without clear guidance about what the tents need to meet ICE standards for holding immigrants," according to the defense officials. They added that the military "had expected to get a memorandum of understanding with details about the tents," but had still "not received specific guidance." They also explained that the military "does not have the money to pay for those changes or upgrades, and no one has ordered it to make or pay for them yet."

As NBC News further explained, when the first migrants started arriving at Guantánamo, DHS "sent only one staffer to oversee detention operations and seven contractors," and "did not send more until after the first three planes of migrants had arrived," according to the defense officials. The agency also failed to send any interpreters for several weeks, leaving members of the military to provide those services, and, faced with "a continued lack of resources," to start "bringing in more staffing to support the mission, including cooks, doctors and administrative staffers." The officials added that it was "unclear who will reimburse the military for the money it has spent on the effort so far, including flights."

NBC News also reported that some congressional Democrats "believe the military flights rest on shaky legal ground." A congressional official who spoke to officials with ICE and the military’s Southern Command said that "the explanation some members of Congress have received from military commanders about the Defense Department’s rationale for the legality" of the flights "seemed like reverse engineering them to be legal."

The congressional official added that "the Defense Department’s standard procedure is to render an opinion that an activity is legal before it begins," but in this case the Pentagon was "relying on a DHS memo that says DHS legal counsel has interpreted its own policies to allow the military to conduct those flights." As the official also explained, "The Pentagon has yet to generate its own interpretation of that law that has been communicated to any of the military forces involved in the Guantánamo effort."

Some of the chaos surrounding Trump’s Guantánamo policy emerged after a Congressional visit last week, when it was revealed that operations to date have cost $16 million, although it is not yet clear whether that total includes the cost of flights.

Democrat Rep. Sara Jacobs, who was part of the congressional visit, told CNN, "What we saw really was that there is very low capacity there, and it’s really expensive, and I could see no operational reasons for using Guantánamo Bay for immigration detention." She added, "It was clearly just because Donald Trump liked the optics."

A government official who spoke to CNN last Friday confirmed that DOD and DHS have "recently signed a memorandum of understanding formalizing each department’s role and DOD’s support to ICE at Guantánamo," overcoming some of the problems highlighted by NBC News, although the official also stated that the last flight by a military aircraft to Guantánamo was on March 1, and that no DOD flights were expected in the coming days.

Migrant flights resume

However, while this seemed to be a cause for some sort of muted celebration, the New York Times reported yesterday that a new ICE flight from the U.S. mainland had arrived at Guantánamo, carrying around 20 Venezuelan men, once more described as gang members, without the government providing any evidence for its claims, and showing compete contempt for all of the evidence accumulated over the last seven weeks, which has demonstrated that these claims are largely, if not entirely groundless.

The arrival of new Venezuelan migrants at Guantánamo is something of a surprise, as Trump seemed, until this news broke, to have given up on Guantánamo, because of an even more alarming enthusiasm that he unveiled last weekend: inappropriately invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport migrants, flagrantly ignoring a temporary restraining order issued by a federal court judge preventing the use of the Act to deport migrants, and immediately sending 238 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, along with 23 alleged Salvadorian gang members, to be imprisoned in the notorious CECOT "mega-prison" established by El Salvador’s hardline President Nayib Bukele — again, without any evidence having been provided to back up the administration’s assertions regarding these men’s gang membership.

Please read Andy’s article about this new scandal, Horror As Trump Invokes the Alien Enemies Act, Defies a Judge and Sends Innocent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Mega-Prison, on his website.