A Space Force military base in Colorado will serve as a detention center for immigrant detainees facing deportation, Defense Department officials said Wednesday.
In a statement, military officials said facilities would be provided at Buckley Space Force Base for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “to stage and process criminal aliens.” The site will be operated by ICE officials and other federal law enforcement agencies, not the U.S. military, according to U.S. Northern Command. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said during an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News that the Trump administration might use Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba to house deportees whose home countries won’t take them back.
President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to take on a larger role in U.S. border security and immigration enforcement. Military officials are sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and have prepared to send 10,000. Deportation flights carrying detainees to Guatemala, Colombia and Ecuador in C-17 military transport planes have departed from border areas carrying recent migrants caught attempting to enter the United States.
ICE has the capacity to hold about 40,000 detainees nationwide in private jails and county facilities where the agency rents beds. Those facilities are nearly full, ICE officials say, and the agency has taken thousands of detainees into custody since Trump took office last week and launched a mass deportation campaign. The use of military bases has raised concerns among ICE officials and immigrant advocates regarding the use of barracks that do not meet detention and safety standards for secure facilities.
In a statement, military officials said facilities would be provided at Buckley Space Force Base for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “to stage and process criminal aliens.” The site will be operated by ICE officials and other federal law enforcement agencies, not the U.S. military, according to U.S. Northern Command. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said during an interview Wednesday morning on Fox News that the Trump administration might use Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba to house deportees whose home countries won’t take them back.
President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to take on a larger role in U.S. border security and immigration enforcement. Military officials are sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and have prepared to send 10,000. Deportation flights carrying detainees to Guatemala, Colombia and Ecuador in C-17 military transport planes have departed from border areas carrying recent migrants caught attempting to enter the United States.
ICE has the capacity to hold about 40,000 detainees nationwide in private jails and county facilities where the agency rents beds. Those facilities are nearly full, ICE officials say, and the agency has taken thousands of detainees into custody since Trump took office last week and launched a mass deportation campaign. The use of military bases has raised concerns among ICE officials and immigrant advocates regarding the use of barracks that do not meet detention and safety standards for secure facilities.
