Guantánamo Bay Was Once a Harsh Prison for Migrants
It was the facility’s historical treatment of asylum seekers that set the precedent for its current-day operations
U.S. immigration officials have long wielded the threat of violence to try to deter certain groups of people — various shades of nonwhite — from migrating to the country. The entire strategy of walling off parts of the U.S.–Mexico border, for one, was predicated on the idea that forcing border-crossers into the remote and deadly terrain that wouldn’t be covered by a wall would deter them from attempting the journey in the first place. The family separation policy runs on a similar calculus: rip children out of their parents’ arms, and they’ll stop coming. But the threat of possible terror doesn’t outweigh the living terror that drives people to flee from their home countries. Neither a walled-off border nor family separations have stopped migrants from coming: According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, more migrants were apprehended at the U.S.–Mexico border in March than in any month since 2007.
Last week, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials allegedly floated a new tactic meant to deter future migrants: the possibility of detaining immigrant children at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay. The move would have…
