Early this month, as component of Head of state Donald Trump’s suppression on prohibited migration, the initial trip lugging “high danger” travelers landed at Guantanamo Bay, home of the infamous united state jail camp that management authorities claimed would certainly house one of the most fierce “worst of the most awful” travelers captured on American dirt.
ABC Information, nonetheless, has actually talked with the households of 2 travelers that state they’re being held there regardless of having no rap sheet.
” Head Of State Donald Trump has actually been extremely clear: Guantanamo Bay will certainly hold the most awful of the most awful. That begins today,” claimed Homeland Protection Assistant Kristi Noem after launching pictures of the travelers boarding a C-17 army airplane in Texas on Feb 4.
The action adhered to an exec order by Trump guiding the assistants of the Division of Protection and the Division of Homeland Protection to “broaden the Traveler Procedures Facility at Naval Terminal Guantanamo Bay to complete ability” for “critical criminal aliens unjustifiably existing in the USA.”
” There’s a great deal of area to suit a great deal of individuals,” Trump claimed in the Oval Workplace last month when he authorized the order. “So we’re mosting likely to utilize it.”
However in the weeks that have actually adhered to, as even more travelers have actually been sent out to Guantanamo, immigrant campaigning for teams and some family members of those restrained case the management has actually offered no proof that those restrained are “high-threat”– which individuals are being sent out to the army base without accessibility to lawful advise or the capacity to interact with family members.
” It’s bothering sufficient that we are also sending out immigrants from the united state to Guantanamo, however it’s past the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without accessibility to lawyers, family members or the outdoors,” claimed Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Jose Rodriguez Simancas.
Simancas family members
A government claim, submitted in Washington, D.C., recently and backed by the ACLU, states this is the very first time in united state background that the federal government has actually restrained noncitizens on civil migration fees at the united state marine base in Cuba.
A DHS agent informed ABC Information recently that along with holding fierce gang participants and various other “high-threat” travelers, the armed force is likewise holding various other undocumented travelers with last expulsion orders.
An ABC Information testimonial of 53 Guantanamo detainees whose names were released by The New york city Times discovered government situations connected with 14 of the names. That number does not represent feasible variants in punctuation, neither does it consist of any type of feasible state situations.
According to government court documents, amongst those situations, one person was billed with attacking, withstanding, or hindering a policeman throughout a trouble at an apprehension facility. One more was billed for presumably being associated with an “prohibited unusual contraband plan,” and one was billed with “deliberately conspiring to move” undocumented individuals in Texas.
In the various other government situations ABC Information discovered, the people were billed for entrance or prohibited reentry right into the united state, a crime.
ABC Information talked to the households of 2 travelers that remain in Guantanamo, that declared their restrained family members do not have connections to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua or various other criminal teams as authorities have actually affirmed.
An elderly DHS authorities informed ABC Information both travelers are participants of Tren De Aragua, however did not fancy or supply any type of information.
” There is a system for phone application to get to attorneys,” included the authorities. “If the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union cares a lot more concerning extremely harmful criminal aliens consisting of killers & & ferocious gang participants than they do concerning American residents– they need to transform their name.”
The relative claimed they think their family members were unjustly targeted as a result of their tattoos.
” He informed us he was being targeted as a result of his tattoos … he was implicated of belonging to Tren de Aragua, however that is not real,” claimed Barbara Simancas, the sis of Jose Rodriguez Simancas that is apparently among the travelers in Guantanamo. “His tattoos have absolutely nothing to do with that … they are of his youngsters’s names.”
Barbara Simancas informed ABC Information that her sibling last spoke with a loved one on Feb. 4 to allow them understand he was being moved to the army base in Cuba the following day. She claimed her sibling gave up to authorities after going across the southerly boundary in 2014 and asserting asylum, which he was positioned in an apprehension facility in El Paso, Texas.
This handout images thanks to the united state Navy, picture by AFN Guantanamo Bay Public Matters, reveals prohibited unusual holding outdoors tents, Feb. 6, 2025, at Naval Terminal Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
AFP/US NAVY/AFN Guantanamo Bay Public Matters through Getty Pictures
Barbara Simancas keeps her sibling does not have a rap sheet and offered to ABC Information a criminal history check from Venezuela.
Rodriguez Simancas was billed with “incorrect entrance” right into the united state in Might 2024. Court documents acquired by ABC Information kept in mind that he has “no criminal background” apart from the incorrect entrance to which he begged guilty.
Barbara Simancas claimed she has actually not had the ability to contact ICE or DHS because her sibling was sent out to Guantanamo.
” I simply ask the federal government to send him back to Venezuela,” Simancas claimed. “His children are fretted. They intend to see their papa.”
ABC Information likewise talked to Jhoan Lee Bastidas, the papa of Jhoan Lee Bastidas Paz, that is being held at Guantanamo Bay. He was billed with “incorrect entrance” right into the united state in November 2023 and begged guilty. Court documents likewise suggest he has “no criminal background” besides that cost.
Lee Bastidas informed ABC Information he learnt about his kid’s apprehension when his various other kid saw an image on social media sites of Bastidas Paz on an army trip to Guantanamo.
Jhoan Lee Bastidas.
Bastidas family members
” When I saw the picture of him, I claimed ‘Oh my God,'” claimed Lee Bastidas, that informed ABC Information that his kid’s name was likewise in the listing of Guantanamo detainees released by the Times.
” We’re believing the most awful points due to the fact that on social media sites, they state Guantanamo is the most awful … that it’s where they house the terrorists,” Lee Bastidas claimed. “I am tortured.”
