The Trump administration’s decision to deport immigrants to the U.S. base on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, cost taxpayers at least $21 million between January 20 and April 8.
Right now, the base only holds 32 immigrants, making the whole effort look like a massive waste. Close to 500 people total have been held there since January with no more than 200 at a time. Many immigrants held there have been returned back to the U.S., as was the case with 40 people briefly held at the prison in March.
Flying immigrants to Cuba also carries a steep price: $26,277 is the average cost per flight hour for the military aircraft the Trump administration used. The drain of taxpayer dollars has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress.
“Every American should be outraged by Donald Trump wasting military resources to pay for his political stunts that do not make us safer,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “U.S. service members did not sign up for this abuse of power.”
The military flew 46 flights this year between Trump’s inauguration and the beginning of April, lasting 802.5 hours and costing $21,087,300, according to Department of Defense data shared with Warren. So far, though, the total effort is far below Trump’s January promise to hold 30,000 immigrants at the Cuba facility.
But even if the Guantanamo Bay base was holding as many immigrants as Trump promised, it would still be a bad idea to be using the detention center in this way, or even at all. A relic of the Cold War days when Cuba’s communist regime was aligned with the Soviet Union, Guantanamo Bay became notorious after the September 11 attacks for holding terrorism suspects under the questionable legal designation of “enemy combatants.”
And Trump wants more immigrants held there: U.S. Transportation Command has ordered that a new additional weekly flight to Guantanamo begin. It’s part of a mission named Operation Southern Guard and involves the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the military. The base should have been closed years ago, but thanks to the inaction of previous Congresses and presidents, it continues serving a dubious purpose.
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