Bust Era Human Rights Violations Pave Way For Trymp To Abuse Detained Migrants

This article was originally publsihed on 02/05/2025

According to reporting by The Associated Press, the first military flight transporting undocumented migrants to Guantanamo Bay landed yesterday. The infamous site has been chosen by the Trump administration to become a sprawling migrant detention center that will hold 30,000 people. A black site started by the Bush Administration after 9/11, it has already witnessed the US government violating the human rights of over 600 detainees. As undocumented migrants are settled, Guantanamo may continue its bloody legacy under the orders of Trump, who seems willing to ignore the rights of those he is shipping there.  

Located on Cuba, Guantanamo has been a US Navy hub since 1903. It became a prison soon after Bush declared the War on Terror following the horrific attacks on 09/11. Unwilling to have accused terrorists be handled by civilian courts, the Bush Administration turned to novel legal theories to keep control over those they captured. This legal strategy worked, and Bush was able to deprive detainees housed in Guantanamo of broad legal protections guaranteed to anyone in the US. Per rulings by the Supreme Court, even non-citizens have a right to due process and a right to remain silent. By housing War on Terror detainees in Cuba, Bush was able to argue they did not enjoy those protections because they were not physically in the country and were not citizens.   

This lack of legal protections for detainees allowed the US government to carry out terrible human rights violations. Torture, phycological and sexual abuse, forced feeding, and starvation have all been documented at Guantanamo. It’s location also slowed free investigation of the prison by the press and stopped any backlash from the American public from turning into protests at the base itself. The history of Guantanamo was explored during the fourth season of Serial, a long-form journalism podcast.  

The Bush Administration used the War on Terror and the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to justify its abusive treatment of those imprisoned at Guantanamo. US interrogators working for the CIA hoped to gain intelligence and information to further US war efforts and interests. After the suffering of detainees became public, the US was condemned by the internation human rights community and many everyday Americans. Following a peak of around 680 inmates, Guantanamo now only holds 15 men today. The controversy around their detention is still alive and well. In place of civilian courts, Bush used a military commission to charge and processes the original detainees. These courts have problems and do not always work well, as can be seen in the cases of two detainees who recently received plea agreements.

The current facilities at Guantanamo will now be used for undocumented migrants. However, they were designed for less than 800 detainees. The rest will be housed in tents, a practice first pioneered by former Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio. He forced inmates to live outside in tents as they suffered from 120 degree temperatures common to Arizona. One former inmate described his year there as “hell”.

As undocumented immigrants arrive at Guantanamo, the history and legal justifications used for detainees under Bush are critically relevant. Trump has been in power less than a month and has already shown an incredible disregard for US law and tradition. Armed with even a minimal legal justification, he may strip undocumented migrants housed at Guantanamo of constitutional protections. Using Guantanamo detainees as a template, this administration may also look to argue that a military commission should be used to process their cases as they are non-citizens outside the US.

Those not convinced of this possibility should remember that congress just installed Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. In his 2020 book, Hegseth rejected American democracy, declared American nationalism as the weapon of choice to use against fellow citizens, and supported gerrymandering as a form of election-rigging. Trump, who nominated Hegseth because he enjoyed watching him on FOX News, rightly saw that Hegseth was not interested in being a competent Secretary. He saw an ideolog willing to push his plans onto the military and force obedience if service members decent. There is also the fact that Trump has directed the military to the southern border – a move the proves he is comfortable using military might to address civilian issues.   

Then there are his comments when this plan was announced. “Some of (the undocumented migrants) are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” Trump said at the time. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo.”

Lastly, there is the recent trip Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to El Salvador. After meeting with the nation’s President, Rubio announced a proposal that would see US citizens convicted of violent crime imprisoned in El Salvadorian prisons for a fee. Trump later stated his support for this plan if it was legal. Setting aside that El Salvador is notorious for horrible prison conditions, the idea that the Secretary of State and the sitting President would even think about such a plan should be horrifying for any US citizen. Not only is the idea blatantly unconstitutional, it also pushed rhetoric that attacks the idea of US citizenship at its core. Trump is arguing that US citizenship only gives Americans protections when they fall in-line. Combine this with the calls to remove birthright citizenship, it is clear someone at the Trump Administration is looking to strip American individuals and groups of their citizenships and exile them if they are too outside their excepted norm. If they are willing to do that to citizens, it feels obvious that those sent to Guantanamo will be in even more danger.