The number of troops deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, under President Donald Trump's order to turn the Navy base into a detention camp for migrants arrested in the U.S. has nearly tripled -- to about 900 -- in little more than a week, according to a defense official on Thursday.
Military officials told lawmakers on Thursday there were approximately 68 migrants detained at Guantanamo Bay. Troops are being deployed to Guantanamo Bay in anticipation of holding 30,000 migrants there.
The surge in troops is the latest move in the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, including efforts to stop migrants from crossing the southern border and deportation of those enforcement officials said are in the U.S. illegally. But sending migrants to Guantanamo -- made notorious for holding 9/11 terrorism suspects for decades -- has triggered a lawsuit and raised questions over the legality of the move, as well as the rights and vetting of people detained there.
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The defense official, who asked for anonymity to provide information on troop movements to Military.com, said as of Thursday the 900 troops deployed to the island base include 334 Marines from 6th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; 216 members of the National Guard; 160 Navy personnel; 116 service members assigned to Joint Task Force-Southern Guard; and 30 personnel from U.S. Southern Command.
Also, 79 personnel are from the Homeland Security Task Force-Southeast, a Department of Homeland Security element that includes members of the U.S. Coast Guard, the official said.
Military.com reported 10 days ago that 310 troops were deployed to Guantanamo Bay, mostly made up of Marines and U.S. Southern Command personnel.
They were joined over the last week by personnel from a Naval Mobile Construction Battalion, which specializes in construction and facility building, and 113 personnel came from the USS St. Louis, a littoral combat ship.
The Army also provided 216 personnel from two National Guard units, the 28th and 508th Military Police companies, which specialize in law enforcement duties.
Military.com previously reported that initial troops deployed to Guantanamo Bay were charged with setting up tents, cots "and other holding area logistics," according to U.S. Southern Command. When asked whether Marines deployed to the facility would be participating in law enforcement or migrant detention duties, a spokesperson said that DHS "is the lead federal agency responsible for irregular migration operations at Naval Station Guantanamo."
However, The New York Times reported Wednesday that some migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay were being guarded by service members instead of civilian law enforcement, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with the operation.
U.S. Southern Command referred questions about troops potentially guarding detainees to the Pentagon, which did not respond by press time.
"The number of service members will continue to fluctuate as additional forces are tasked to deploy and will be scaled based on the requirements of DHS, which is the lead federal agency," the defense official wrote in an email Thursday. "With regards to holding area logistics, preparations for tent facilities are ongoing."
Immigrant rights and legal groups, spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Trump administration on Wednesday in an effort to provide migrants deported to Guantanamo Bay legal aid, also accusing the administration of "holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, or the outside world," according to the court filing.
Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, and Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, leaving questions about costs for the current operation at Guantanamo Bay -- which some lawmakers noted had poorly maintained facilities -- unanswered.
"Under the current situation, what we're doing is modifying our existing plans to be able to support the migrant ops at [Guantanamo Bay] and to provide safe and humane care in support of the Department of Homeland Security," Holsey said.
When asked about cost for health care, facilities and sanitation, he said that Southern Command was "in the initial phase of this process."
Some detainees will be held in the base's maximum security prison, known for and still being used to house suspected terrorists. The other facility that will be used is located miles away and is called the Migrant Operations Center, which has been used to house migrants detained at sea -- but not on U.S. soil -- for decades, CNN reported.
"Border security and immigration enforcement is critical to our national security," said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. "But Guantanamo Bay is a dubious location to detain immigrants. The detention center has only been used for law-of-war detainees, and it is unfortunate to equate immigrants with international war criminals."
Related: Marines, Soldiers Set Up Tents and Cots at Guantanamo Bay for Trump's Migrant Deportations
