Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a staunch informing to amerciable immigrants adjacent arsenic helium defended their attraction astatine the infamous Guantánamo Bay detention facility.
The erstwhile Fox News big arrived astatine the 45-square-mile subject basal successful Cuba connected Tuesday, and provided an exclusive circuit to his erstwhile colleague, Laura Ingraham, showing her the rooms where migrants volition beryllium held earlier they are deported backmost to their location country.
'It's an incredibly nonrecreational operation,' said Hegseth, who served arsenic a US Army lieutenant astatine Guantanamo Bay from 2004 to 2005.
'The connection is clear: If you interruption the law, if you are a criminal, you tin find your mode astatine Guantanamo Bay.
'You don't privation to beryllium astatine Guantanamo Bay, which is wherever we housed al Qaeda aft 9/11,' helium added, noting that it is simply a 'maximum information prison.'
Still, helium denied reports of mistreatment and inhumane conditions, calling allegations 'BS.'
Hegseth described the surviving conditions for the migrants arsenic 'austere' and 'basic, but it's each basal amenity that you could request is provided.'
'These are apical notch, apical tier facilities tally by professionals wherever they crook implicit backwards to marque definite medical, dental, wellness care, food, spiritual accommodations, connection accommodations,' helium said, portion admitting 'you're not going to person cosmopolitan state astatine Guantanamo Bay. It's a prison.'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made his archetypal travel to Guantanamo Bay connected Tuesday
He offered Fox News big Laura Ingraham a circuit of the facilities wherever migrants volition beryllium held earlier they are deported backmost to their location countries
The defence secretary's remarks came arsenic helium showed Ingraham rooms with 4 bunk beds each, with apparel folded connected apical of them and toiletries successful a bag.
But Ingraham was not allowed to spot the rooms wherever the migrants who committed superior offenses successful the United States were being held, arsenic immoderate of the migrants who person already spent clip astatine the campy claimed to the Latin Times they lived successful shackles and wrong cages.
One young Venezuelan adjacent said inhumane conditions astatine the installation near him traumatized.
'I truly don't deliberation I'll permission my state again due to the fact that I was truly traumatized by everything that happened,' Kevin Rodriguez said, noting that helium mislaid 9 pounds and was provided with precise small food.
The American Civil Liberties Union is present suing the Trump medication for entree to the camp.
It is seeking a tribunal bid requiring the medication to springiness its attorneys in-person entree to detainees arsenic soon arsenic imaginable and contiguous video and telephone entree successful the interim, according to Politico.
The suit argues that the detainees' deficiency of entree to attorneys violates their Constitutional close to counsel, and that the ACLU has their ain First Amendment close to conscionable with the migrants.
Hegseth described the surviving conditions for the migrants arsenic 'austere' and 'basic, but it's each basal amenity that you could request is provided'
Migrants are seen arriving astatine the Guantanamo Bay installation connected Tuesday
Hegseth, though, denied the claims.
'I cognize what their docket is,' helium told Ingraham of the ACLU.
'They privation to marque America look bad, they privation to marque our commandant successful chief, President Trump, look bad,' helium claimed.
Yet the Trump medication besides faced a setback erstwhile a national justice blocked it from sending a radical of Venezuelans to the naval base.
And arsenic Hegseth toured the installation for the archetypal clip arsenic the Secretary of Defense, a radical of Democratic senators sent him a missive saying the usage of Guantanamo Bay to clasp migrants risks semipermanent harm to the readiness and estimation of the equipped forces.
The US Navy has deployed 2,000 troops to the naval basal on with Marines assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment.
'This open-ended wide detention effort of a US subject installation risks costing [the Department of Defense] hundreds of millions of unbudgeted dollars - if not billions- and thousands of men-hours which cannot beryllium regained,' Jon Ossoff, Chris Coons, Brian Schatz and Chris Van Hollen wrote successful the letter obtained by Stars and Stripes.
They asked for an estimated outgo of the Department of Defense's enactment to the Department of Homeland Security, which maintains the facility, and erstwhile the section would beryllium reimbursed.
The senators besides asked for an estimated outgo and timeline to summation Guantanamo Bay's migrant capableness to 30,000 and what is the root of the funding.
'It's an incredibly nonrecreational operation,' said Hegseth, who served arsenic a US Army lieutenant astatine Guantanamo Bay from 2004 to 2005
Trump had unveiled plans to detain arsenic galore arsenic 30,000 precocious precedence migrants with transgression records astatine the subject basal astatine Guantanamo Bay soon aft helium took office
As of Tuesday, 26 men whom the Trump medication said are designated for deportation were being held astatine the notorious basal known for lodging terrorists aft 9/11
'Our men and women successful azygous are warfare fighters, not jailers of migrants,' the senators argued arsenic they gave Hegseth a March 7 deadline to respond.
Trump had unveiled plans to detain arsenic galore arsenic 30,000 precocious precedence migrants with transgression records astatine the subject basal astatine Guantanamo Bay shortly aft helium took office.
‘Some of them are truthful atrocious that we don’t adjacent spot the countries to clasp them due to the fact that we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna nonstop them retired to Guantanamo,’ helium said successful January.
As of Tuesday, 26 men whom the Trump medication said are designated for deportation were being held astatine the base.
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