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Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
"The administration's claim that there is a migrant 'invasion' is unfounded, and its mislabeling immigrants as 'terrorists' is diversionary—and neither makes offshore detention lawful," said one rights advocate.
"America can and must be better than this," said U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal Tuesday as the Trump administration announced it had begun operating deportation flights bound for Cuba, where President Donald Trump has said he wants to detain undocumented immigrants at the notorious Guantánamo Bay naval base and prison.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the first flights authorized last week by Trump were underway, with the Department of Defense having deployed Marines to the U.S. base in Cuba on Sunday to begin expanding detention facilities.
Trump has called for the prison to be expanded to hold 30,000 people.
The flights announced Tuesday are the latest step in Trump's militarized anti-immigration operations, with 1,500 soldiers and Marines deployed to the southern U.S. border and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting major immigration raids across the country.
According to reports, roughly half of the people arrested in cities such as New York and Chicago have had no criminal records and were guilty only of overstaying a visa or crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without going through a port of entry—civil violations of U.S. immigration laws rather than criminal offenses.
Last week, Leavitt said all undocumented immigrants, not just those who have committed violent crimes—whose arrests Trump had previously said would be prioritized—were criminals who had "invaded our nation's borders."
At Slate on Sunday, Pedro Gerson noted that Trump's "entire political rise is tethered to the idea that immigrants are invading the country and that only he can fix it."
"Trump intends to build in Guantánamo purposely to reify the same message that propelled him to power: Immigrants are criminals and they are here to hurt you," wrote Gerson. "But now Trump is going further: Some of these immigrants are not only criminals, they are equivalent to terrorists. Frighteningly, this move may also be Trump signaling an intent to strip undocumented immigrants of even more rights and treat them under similarly abusive conditions as recent Guantánamo Bay detainees have experienced."
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was vague in an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday about who exactly would be sent to Guantánamo Bay, commonly known as Gitmo, via military planes.
When host Kristen Welker asked whether "women, children, and families" would be imprisoned there, Noem reverted back to the administration's previous claim that it is "targeting the worst of the worst" and detaining people who "are making our streets more dangerous."
"After that, we have final removal orders on many individuals in this country. They are the next priority," said Noem. "We're going to use the facilities that we have."
"Setting up an American gulag in the Caribbean in response to forced displacement in the Americas is a shameful low in U.S. history."
The mass detention facility was built by the Clinton administration to hold 12,500 inmates, and became infamous during President George W. Bush's administration for its detention of suspects in the so-called "War on Terror." Detainees have been held without charges in violation of the U.S. Constitution and have been subjected to torture. Fifteen detainees remain at the prison following the Biden administration's transfer of 11 people to Oman last month.
Trump's planned expansion of Gitmo's prison would result in "a detention facility of unprecedented size in the American context," wrote Gerson at Slate. "The Tule Lake Japanese internment camp, for example, had a capacity of around 18,000. If the Trump administration actually builds the detention camp in Guantanamo, it'll double in size Auschwitz-Birkenau's original design and be bigger than Dachau and Treblinka combined."
As Yael Schacher, director for the Americans and Europe at Refugees International, said in a statement, the U.S. prison was also used to "inhumanely [detain] Cuban and Haitian asylum-seekers in the 1990s."
"The Trump administration's use of military planes to send immigrants to detention at Guantánamo Bay epitomizes the administration's gratuitously cruel, illegal, expensive, and burdensome approach to immigration policy," said Schacher. "Guantánamo's Migrant Operations Center, which the Trump administration is sending Marines to expand, is truly a black box that no nongovernmental organization has been allowed to visit."
"The administration's claim that there is a migrant 'invasion' is unfounded, and its mislabeling immigrants as 'terrorists' is diversionary—and neither makes offshore detention lawful," Schacher added. "Members of Congress should investigate the move as a misuse of military assets. Setting up an American gulag in the Caribbean in response to forced displacement in the Americas is a shameful low in U.S. history."
Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, warned that mass deportation to Gitmo will "cut people off from lawyers, family, and support systems, throwing them into a black hole so the U.S. government can continue to violate their human rights out of sight."
"Sending immigrants to Guantánamo is a profoundly cruel, costly move," she said. "Shut Gitmo down now and forever!"
One Texas bishop said the new policy "strikes fear into the heart of our community... when they are worshipping God, seeking healthcare, and dropping off and picking up children at school."
School districts, healthcare professionals, and religious institutions across the United States are in fight-back mode Wednesday after Republican President Donald Trump revoked a rule prohibiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting undocumented immigrants in or around "sensitive" locations like schools, places of worship, hospitals, and shelters.
"Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a statement issued Tuesday. "The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."
The unleashing of ICE agents for raids on previously protected spaces—which are refuges for children,
domestic violence victims, and other vulnerable people—is part of Trump's anti-immigrant agenda that includes "the largest mass deportation operation" in U.S. history, according to one administration official.
Religious leaders were among those condemning the move, with Mark Seitz, the Roman Catholic bishop of El Paso, Texas and chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, lamenting that the new policy "strikes fear into the heart of our community, cynically layering a blanket of anxiety on families when they are worshipping God, seeking healthcare, and dropping off and picking up children at school."
BREAKING: Trump has revoked a rule prohibiting ICE from arresting undocumented immigrants at or near "sensitive locations," like schools, places of worship, hospitals, & shelters." We need to act I list 7 tangible actions you can take to help protect immigrants: www.qasimrashid.com/p/trumps-mas...
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— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@qasimrashid.com) January 21, 2025 at 12:43 PM
However, communities across the nation also met Trump's escalation with renewed determination to protect their immigrant neighbors.
Dr. Katherine Peeler, medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement Tuesday that "no one should have to hesitate to seek lifesaving treatment because they fear detention, deportation, or being torn from their families."
"Eliminating protections for sensitive locations like hospitals will deter people from seeking essential medical care, putting their individual health at risk and jeopardizing public health," Peeler added. "This is part and parcel of the Trump administration's strategy to create a climate of fear that promotes discrimination and unnecessary suffering."
Some school districts in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Palm Springs and many others had already established policies to preemptively protect undocumented students by declaring safe spaces or refusing to cooperate with federal agencies. Others are now acting in the wake of Tuesday's policy shift.
School officials in Bridgeport, Connecticut said Tuesday that they are reaffirming their "commitment to protecting the safety and privacy of all students and families," partly by blocking ICE agents from entering buildings without permission from Superintendent Royce Avery.
"We will not tolerate any threats to the safety or dignity of our students," Avery said. "Every student in Bridgeport, regardless of their immigration status, has the right to feel secure and supported in our schools. I became an educator to advocate for all students, and I will ensure their rights and privacy are upheld. Our schools will remain a safe space where all students can learn, grow, and succeed without fear or discrimination."
The Saint Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE) in Minnesota's capital city is calling on its members to resist what it called Trump's efforts to establish an "authoritarian dictatorship."
"It is our turn to face down the authoritarian Republicans ruling our government," SPFE president Leah VanDassor said in a statement Tuesday. "Joining together, we can resist authoritarian efforts to divide us, refuse to comply with their agenda, and reclaim our birthright: making America live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all—no exceptions."
"There will be those in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and the Minnesota Legislature that will support [Trump's] orders, because they support replacing our democracy with an authoritarian dictatorship," VanDassor continued. "There will be temptation to ignore the role that white supremacy, sexism, transphobia, and xenophobia play in these actions."
"Some may have that option," VanDassor added. "But we don't."
Denver Public Schools (DPS) was among the districts that offered community guidance on what to do if government officials show up. School employees are advised to deny federal agents entry to buildings, alert occupants to impending raids, demand warrants from ICE officers, and seek legal counsel.
DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero explained in a statement last week that the district "is committed to providing equitable and inclusive environments where all our students feel safe and socially and emotionally supported" as "students, families, and staff who are undocumented are experiencing unease and uncertainty regarding potential mass deportation."
Even some MAGA Republicans are opposed to allowing federal agents to raid schools.
"If they do that, less kids will come to school," Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne toldPhoenix New Times on Tuesday, adding that it's not a child's fault if "their parents came here illegally."
Among those offering advice to her community on what to do if faced with an ICE raid was Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who said in a video posted on Instagram: "If you are a resident and ICE comes to your property, you do not have to open the door. The only way you have to open the door to ICE is if they have a warrant signed by a judge."
Others noted that Trump's new policy only applies to public spaces and that ICE agents need both a judicial search warrant and arrest warrant to enter private spaces and arrest people.
While some U.S. clergy have expressed trepidation about offering sanctuary to migrants in light of the new Department of Homeland Security policy, other said they will protect community members in need.
"It is really important to be present to let people know, we will be there wherever we can to support them," Father Larry Dowling, a Catholic priest in Chicago, toldABC 7 on Sunday.
Trump
lashed out against Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde on his Truth Social platform early Wednesday, calling the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. "nasty" after she implored him during Tuesday's inaugural interfaith service to "have mercy" on "those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away" and who may not "have the proper documentation"—saying the vast majority of them are "good neighbors" and "not criminals."