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The Ministry of Internal Security is preparing to use military bases in New Jersey and Indiana to hold immigrants who have illegally entered the country, as well as to increase the number of immigrants detained at the American naval base on Guantanamo bay, Cuba, according to the correspondence between the DHS and the Pentagon obtained by NPR.
According to the letter, dated July 15, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, approved the measures, which were requested by the DHS the previous month.
Immigration and customs application, which is part of the DHS, had requested immediate access to Aterbury Camp, a base of the National Guard in Indiana and a joint McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst base, a base in New Jersey, the Department of Defense.
Ice also seeks to have more immigrants without Atguantanamo Bay legal status before their final withdrawal from the United States.
“The DOD approves this support until September 30, 2025, subject to the ice, now a 24/7 surveillance presence on each site to maintain custody and provide a global supervision of each site,” the letter of the executive Anthony Fusnelo said to the acting secretary of the DHS, Andrew Whitaker. Ice staff and entrepreneurs will be responsible for all the care and the handling of migrants, including meals, medical screening, transport and medical services, according to the correspondence obtained by NPR.
Neither DHS nor the Ministry of Defense have yet answered questions about the letter.
During his first day in power, President Trump declared a national emergency on the southern border, allowing the DHS to access the military resources of the DOD. During the testimony of the Congress, Todd Lyons, Ice acting director, told legislators that he did not expect the DHS to reimburse the Pentagon for their costs.
The approval letter notes that the DHS will pay DOD for all costs associated with the detention of migrants to McGuire Field, the Air Force base in New Jersey.
The request for the use of additional military bases and the expansion in Guantanamo intervene while the Trump administration prompted to arrest and have more persons in the country without legal status. DHS A Nearly 57,000 people in immigration detention, Although he only has About 41,000 beds. Department has sought contracts With the Federal Bureau of Prisons, local jurisdictions and the use of military bases to hold migrants.
In June, Guantanamo held About 500 migrantsBut so far the base could grant only 200.
In the letter to the legislators obtained by NPR, HegSeth said that the use of the bases of Indiana and New Jersey for the holding of immigration “will not negatively affect military training, operations, preparation or other military requirements, including the National Guard and preparation for the reserve.”
ATERBURY CAMP in Indiana will help withdrawal operations in the Chicago region; McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey will support Newark. Guantanamo Bay is designated to help Miami’s detentions and moves.
The plan set out by the DHS calls for a space up to 1,000 people in the bases of Indiana and New Jersey and to double the capacity of Guantanamo to 400 people.
The DOD rejected a request from the DHS for air transport assistance until it gets more details.
In May, the DHS asked 20,000 members of the National Guard to help ice in its operations ranging from “night raids” and “rural prohibitions” to keep functions in detention establishments. The Pentagon has already approved some 700 members of the guard to help in Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly, told NPR that hundreds of additional guard troops should be called to help operations in Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.
The Democratic Delegation of Congress in a press release condemned the terms of the use of the New Jersey base.
“This is an inappropriate use of our national defense system and our military resources,” they said in the press release. “The use of the military of our country to hold and hold undocorous immigrants compromises military preparation and opens the way for Ice Ice Immigration Raids in each New Jersey community. We have the largest soldier in the world and use it as a domestic political tool is unacceptable and shameful.”
In addition to using the army, the Trump administration should be able to expand its detention capacity due to an influx of funding for the congress. The recent tax and expenditure bill has reserved $ 45 billion for immigration detention centers and $ 30 billion for more ice personnel, transport costs and to maintain existing ice facilities.
