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immigration
Human Rights Groups Denounce Trump Plans to Send Cubans Fleeing Impacts of Blockade to Guantánamo
“The continued use of Guantánamo Bay, which has an extensive history of abuse and torture, is horrific and unconscionable."
Apr 10, 2026
Dozens of human rights organizations sent a letter to Congress on Friday, decrying threats by US military officials to detain Cubans who flee to the US to escape President Donald Trump's crushing economic blockade at Guantánamo Bay.
The 86 groups, which include the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Victims of Torture, the International Refugee Assistance Project, and Refugees International, zeroed in on remarks made by US Marine Corps Gen. Francis Donovan, the commander of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month about how the military would respond to the mass influx of Cuban refugees to the United States.
The risks of a refugee exodus from Cuba were sparked in January after Trump tightened the already brutal regime of economic sanctions by threatening to slap harsh tariffs on any nation that provided oil to Cuba. The result has been a crippling fuel shortage that has caused routine blackouts and disrupted every facet of daily life, from hospital care to food cultivation.
Trump enacted the fuel blockade in what he has described as an effort to coerce the government to step down from power and make way for one more amenable to the interests of American companies. With Cuba in a weakened state, he has threatened to "take" the island outright using American military force.
The United Nations has warned that if the blockade is prolonged, it could bring about a total "humanitarian collapse.”
Asked by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) about what would be done if this caused a mass influx of Cuban refugees to the US, Donovan said they had an executive order that would involve coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to handle a "mass migration event."
Donovan said it would include using the US military base at Guantánamo Bay, “where we would set up a camp to deal with those migrants or any overflow from any situation in Cuba itself.”
“Given the well-documented history of abusive and unlawful detention at Guantánamo, any proposal to use the base for additional detention is deeply troubling and unacceptable," the organizations wrote on Friday,
They note the prison’s history as a site used for extrajudicial torture during the global War on Terror and as a holding facility for other migrant groups, including Haitian refugees and asylum seekers who fled a military coup in the 1990s, many of whom were subjected to substandard living conditions.
"Time and again, we have seen the US government try to use Guantánamo as a legal black hole to mistreat migrants, subjecting them to inhumane conditions and interfering with both their right to seek protection in the United States and their right to counsel," said Pedro Sepulveda, a litigation fellow for the International Refugee Assistance Project.
Despite pledges from multiple presidents to close the camp for good, it remains open more than two decades after former President George W. Bush began using it to detain hundreds of terrorism suspects without trial.
Trump has expanded its use during his second term, using it to temporarily hold more than 700 migrants since February 2025—including dozens of Cubans rounded up by immigration agents.
Trump’s use of the camp marks the first time it has been used to hold people detained in the continental United States. A Washington Post investigation from February found that those in the facility were subject to weeks-long periods of isolation, invasive strip searches, and denied contact with lawyers.
The human rights groups called on Congress to block any funding that could be used to detain Cubans fleeing Trump's blockade and to shut down Guantánamo Bay for good.
"The president has held Guantánamo detention as a threat over the heads of migrants in the United States and now threatens the same over Cubans who may be forced to flee their homes as a result of his own actions," said Yumna Rizvi, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Victims of Torture.
Michael Galant, the senior research and outreach associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said, “If the Trump administration is worried about Cuban migration, the solution is simple: Stop intentionally impoverishing the Cuban people through an embargo and fuel blockade.”
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Democrats Report Overcrowding, Medical Neglect at Arizona ICE Facility After Unannounced Visit
"This is Trump’s mass deportation machine in action."
Apr 10, 2026
Three Arizona members of the US House learned of credible reports of overcrowding at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility at an airport in Mesa, Arizona, and that was "exactly what we saw," said Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva on Thursday night after the lawmakers paid a surprise visit to the detention center.
Grijalva joined fellow Democratic Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Greg Stanton in visiting the Arizona Removal Operations Coordination Center at Mesa-Gateway Airport, which the latter two also visited earlier this year—during one of the few periods in recent months in which the center has been under its capacity of 157 people.
As The Arizona Mirror reported Thursday, when Ansari and Stanton alerted ICE ahead of time that they'd be coming for their earlier visit on February 20, the number of detainees held in the facility dipped to one of its lowest levels in the past year.
"Almost immediately after the inspection, those numbers began to climb again," the Mirror reported, reaching as high as 335 in early March. Before the lawmakers notified ICE, as many as 777 people were being detained in the 25,000 square foot facility.
This time, with Grijalva joining them, Ansari and Stanton didn't announce that they'd be coming—and found "well over 240 detainees stacked like sardines in cells," said Ansari in a social media post.
I just conducted an unprompted, late night oversight visit at an ICE holding facility at the Mesa Gateway Airport with @RepGregStanton and @Rep_Grijalva. What we saw was shocking and sick.
Well over 240 detainees stacked like sardines in cells. People were sick and ICE was… pic.twitter.com/mN8GIAXrpd
— Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (@RepYassAnsari) April 10, 2026
"The last time we were there, they very much cleaned things up and tried to make this horrible place as presentable as it could be," said Ansari. "And what we saw tonight was massive overcrowding of every single cell... Each room has capacity for just 21 people. And in each of these rooms there were 40 or more human beings, people were body-to-body, laying next to each other like sardines."
The congresswoman said the people were "really desperate" to talk to the lawmakers despite an ICE rule prohibiting visiting members of Congress from speaking to detainees.
"Through the cracks in the door, they are telling us that it's extremely hot, that they have been there for days," said Ansari. "One of the men was telling me that someone has a fever in there and I tried to get the ICE supervisor to bring medical staff over, and he was just staring at me blankly like I was asking for the most ridiculous thing."
The coordination center is meant to hold people for no more than 12 hours just before they are deported.
According to the Mirror, publicly available data shows that 36 hours is the average length of time this year that people have been detained at the coordination center, compared with 12 hours this time last year.
The Mirror also reported Friday that a supervisor claimed during the three lawmakers' oversight visit that the center is a "72-hour hold facility, even though it has no beds or showers"—contradicting ICE's own earlier statement to the newspaper.
Tonight, I conducted unannounced oversight at ICE’s Mesa Airport detention center with @RepYassAnsari and @Rep_Grijalva.
What we saw was horrifying — crowded cells at 2-3x capacity and busses more of detainees being loaded in. This is Trump’s mass deportation machine in action. pic.twitter.com/IueA5cBjyH
— Rep. Greg Stanton (@RepGregStanton) April 10, 2026
ICE told the Mirror that fluctuations in population levels at the coordination center are a "normal part of operations" and are "based on flight schedules and operational needs."
But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, told the newspaper that "serious problems with overcrowding at ICE field offices" have been reported nationwide as the Trump administration pushes to arrest 3,000 people per day as part of its mass deportation agenda.
"The overcrowding situation is frightening, and you have people that are sick, people that are sweating, women that need sanitary napkins and were asking me if I could get some for them," said Grijalva. "People were laying on concrete without any bedding of any kind, and there were people that were so tightly in there that I couldn't count them."
Just finished a surprise Congressional oversight visit at a temporary ICE holding site in Mesa, AZ. The conditions are absolutely horrific. No human being should be treated this way. pic.twitter.com/krZ05F2g8a
— Rep. Adelita Grijalva (@Rep_Grijalva) April 10, 2026
The three lawmakers said they will be pushing to ensure no new funding for ICE is included in the new budget for the US Department of Homeland Security when Congress debates the spending next week. Stanton told the Mirror that the visit "exemplified exactly why" ICE should not get any more funding.
"What we saw was horrifying—crowded cells at two to three times the capacity and buses of more detainees being loaded in," Stanton said. "This is Trump’s mass deportation machine in action."
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Trump’s Gold Card Is Birth Tourism
The president's true criticism about birth tourism is not that it is occurring—it’s that someone else is profiting from it.
Apr 07, 2026
On April 1, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in Trump v. Barbara, the class-action lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship.
Trump insists that this ban is necessary to stop birth tourism. This refers to the practice of traveling to another country to give birth, thereby allowing the child to automatically acquire citizenship. Via TruthSocial, Trump writes: “Birthright Citizenship has to do with the babies of slaves, not Chinese Billionaires who have 56 kids, all of whom ‘become’ American Citizens. One of the many Great Scams of our time!”
Solicitor General D. John Sauer has raised similar concerns. He remarks, “Media reported as early as 2015 that, based on Chinese media reports, there are 500—500—birth tourism companies in the People’s Republic of China, whose business is to bring people here to give birth and return to that nation.”
However, despite their criticisms, the Trump administration has effectively launched their own birth tourism venture: the “Trump Gold Card,” a visa program that expedites the process for those “who have demonstrated their ability and desire to advance the interest of the United States” by donating $1 million dollars and paying a $15,000 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) processing fee. The “Trump Corporate Gold Card” requires a $2 million contribution paid by a corporation “or similar entity” on behalf of the individual. There is even a “Trump Platinum Card” reportedly coming soon. That card will require a $5 million contribution and makes the visa holder exempt from paying US taxes on non-US income for 270 days.
Trump is not ending birth tourism. His true goal is to seize control of the market by monopolizing the pathways to legal residency and citizenship.
Once approved, either variant of the Gold Card provides successful applicants with “lawful permanent resident status” as an EB-1 or EB-2 visa holder. (Specific details for the Platinum Card are not yet available, but presumably it would grant recipients permanent resident status as well.)
This is significant because of how it relates to Trump’s birthright ban. The Trump administration alleges that the 14th Amendment only grants citizenship to those who are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US by virtue of owing it “direct and immediate allegiance” and receiving “protection” from it. The children of US citizens and lawful permanent residents meet this standard because their parents have “a permanent domicile.”
Trump’s birthright executive order explicitly carves out this exception: “Nothing in this order shall be construed to affect the entitlement of other individuals, including children of lawful permanent residents, to obtain documentation of their United States citizenship.”
Importantly then, the US-born children of Trump Gold Card recipients will be automatically granted citizenship at birth—this is true regardless of how the Supreme Court rules.
Trump is not ending birth tourism. His true goal is to seize control of the market by monopolizing the pathways to legal residency and citizenship. This is a hostile takeover. While Trump decries the problem of “Chinese billionaires” scamming the US to get citizenship for their children, his Gold Card programs allow them to directly purchase it. After all, who else but a multimillionaire or billionaire could afford the $1 million (or $5 million) price tag? Once they obtain lawful permanent resident status, what stops them from giving birth to “56 kids” in the US?
The “Corporate Gold Card” paves the way for even relatively poorer immigrants to gain permanent residency so long as they have skills that companies desire. Rather than curtailing the birth tourism market, Trump is expanding it!
Moreover, a Gold Card applicant may include their spouse or unmarried children (under 21 years old), thereby ensuring they too “receive all of the privileges conferred” by the program. While each family member is subject to another $15,000 DHS processing fee and a $1 million donation, this is unlikely to be a barrier for the ultra wealthy.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick claims, “Our immigration system should put Americans first. That’s exactly why the Trump Gold Card is a major win for our country.” Trump likewise exclaims: “Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy, and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money, and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people.”
The irony is that Trump wants wealthy, successful, and talented people to migrate to the US. He wants this regardless of how much his anti-immigrant base despises it. His criticism about birth tourism is not that it is occurring—it’s that someone else is profiting from it.
Ultimately, the Gold Card is gaudy, illegal Trump-branded birth tourism. If Trump were serious about tackling this issue, he would immediately end his pay-for-stay scheme. But he won’t. He will insist, despite any evidence, that birth tourism is rampant and poses an existential threat to the nation; while, at the same time, getting in on the action himself. This isn’t because Trumpian birth tourism is superior or better for the nation. It’s because it’s better for him. In the end, there is only one citizen that Trump truly cares about: himself.
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