United States President Donald Trump has embarked on his war against illegal immigrants in the country, with mass deportations already ongoing to return undocumented ‘aliens’ back to their home countries.
In line with his new directives, the tough-talking head of state recently announced that plans were underway to detain upto 30,000 illegal immigrants at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
Notorious for its harsh living conditions and blatant human rights violations, the US-controlled prison, which detains some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, will now hold immigrants accused of theft or violent crimes.
This initiative was unveiled during the signing of the Laken Riley Act, a stringent immigration law mandating the detention of undocumented migrants accused of theft or violent crimes.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump declared.
“Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back.”
Guantanamo Bay Prison is often described as a hellhole where prisoners face human rights abuses, harsh conditions, indefinite detention, and the use of controversial interrogation methods.
Housing fewer than 40 prisoners, Guantanamo Bay has confined detainees for decades in concrete cells measuring just 6.8 square feet, typically furnished with only a thin mattress, a metal toilet, and a narrow slit for daylight.
Some detainees have been force-fed through nasal tubes during hunger strikes, shackled in stress positions for hours, and subjected to psychological torture.
The US Government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has frequently employed torture tactics, including sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and exposure to extreme temperatures, to extract information.
It is ironic that with those conditions Guantanamo Bay is the world’s most expensive prison, costing U.S. taxpayers over $6 billion to run (Kshs 774 billion), with an annual budget of $540 million (Kshs 69.7 billion), translating to roughly $13 million per prisoner (Kshs 1.67 billion).
The steep operational costs of Guantanamo Bay, estimated at several million dollars per detainee annually, are due to its remote location in Cuba, strict security measures, limited detainees, and the high expenses of personnel, infrastructure maintenance, and logistics.
A specialized medical wing, equipped with doctors, psychiatrists, and even dentists to prevent detainees from dying in custody, contributes to the high bill, to ensure they remain imprisoned indefinitely.
The Joe Biden-led administration had began efforts to shut down Guantanamo, which saw the release of several detainees and plea deals for those awaiting trial.
Trump’s current move has hence faced criticism from Cuban officials, human rights organizations, and legal bodies, who argue that it violates international human rights laws. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has vowed to challenge the plan, calling it “mass internment” and inhumane.
