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.

  • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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    11 months ago

    Sure would have been nice if Obama or Biden had actually closed Guantanamo Bay when they had the chance.

    I liked to find silver linings where I can, and what I’m hoping is that when the shambles of the American government finally get back into Democratic hands (or whatever opposition party replaces them, at this point) there will finally be a realization that actual for real change is needed. Democratic politicians have been just treading water for decades now.

    • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      I’m not American so I could be way off but didn’t they try but were blocked by Republicans? At the very least they reduced the count of inmates to only the more complicated ones (ie. where do they get sent to, what do we, do we completely fried this guys brain, etc)

      • dance_ninja@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yeah I remember Obama wanted to close it, but then the big question of where to move the prisoners to in the US had to be answered, and nobody wanted to hold them. It was politically dead at that point.

        • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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          11 months ago

          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.

          • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            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).

            • Jhex@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Some of those people were guilty and should have been tried and jailed here

              if so, why weren’t they tried and sentenced?

              • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Because placing them in Guantanamo meant no one had to actually figure out where/how to house these people safely.

                • Jhex@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  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

                  • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    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.

        • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          From what I recall about the reasoning behind abandoning the idea of closing Guantanamo Bay, the only options were releasing them in central park or keeping them in Guantanamo Bay.

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Unfortunately, I’ve just seen the “opposition” just fall in line. A bunch of spineless geriatric Nazi sympathizers.