The United States is considering using a naval facility at Guantanamo Bay to process and repatriate illegal immigrants coming from Haiti, White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said during a press call on March 14.
The naval station at Guantanamo Bay has been used in the past for processing and repatriating illegal Haitian immigrants, and it “remains an option” for the future if maritime migration trends continue to worsen, Mr. Kirby said.
“I don’t have any concrete plans here to speak to. I think it’s important for people to remember the context here that maritime migration remains a challenge in the Caribbean. We have to monitor it, we have to assess the flow, [and] we have to do the proper repatriation processes.
“And, again, Guantanamo Bay has been used in the past for that. And so we'll certainly keep the options open,” he said.
As Haiti deals with a continuing gang war and humanitarian crisis, some of its citizens are fleeing the country by boat to the United States.
The Coast Guard interdicted a vessel of 65 illegal Haitian immigrants near Great Inagua, Bahamas, on March 7 before repatriating them back to Haiti.
Authorities in Florida intercepted a different vessel of 24 illegal Haitian immigrants on Feb. 29, which also contained drugs, guns, and night vision equipment.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis allocated additional state resources in March to respond to the increased maritime migration efforts.
Mr. Kirby said it is U.S. policy to return noncitizens “who do not have a fear of persecution or torture or legal basis to enter the United States.”
“That won’t change,” he said. “And those that are interdicted at sea will be subject to immediate repatriation.”
However, Mr. Kirby claimed the Unites States is not yet seeing a “heavy flow of Haitian migrants” by sea or land.
“But because the situation is not getting better, because we know it’s dangerous and unstable for the Haitian people, it would be irresponsible if DHS and the interagency wasn’t taking a look at what we might do should that flow dramatically increase and how we would properly handle individuals that might be seeking to flee,” he added.
And that might include using the naval station at Guantanamo Bay for processing and repatriation again, should that flow increase, Mr. Kirby said.
However, some are worried the United States might already be in that position.
“The government has been thrown out, and as a Florida man, I’m deeply concerned about this wave of people that we’re about to have coming from Haiti,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said to Rebecca Zimmerman, assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, during a March 12 House Armed Services Committee hearing on national security challenges in the Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Gaetz fears the number of Haitians fleeing the country “will accelerate” in the coming weeks.
“So what are we doing to prepare for that wave and to ensure that these people are not paroled into the United States, as the administration has done with people on the southern border, but instead are repatriated back at the dock at Port au Prince?” he asked Ms. Zimmerman.
She responded that the United States has yet to see “large numbers, what we would characterize as ’maritime mass migration,'” but that the agency is “alert to that possibility.”
Further, she said an executive order issued by President George W. Bush grants “specific legal authorities” to any president to “designate an anticipated maritime mass migration [to allow] ‘gray hull’ naval vessels into the Straits of Florida to deter that migration and then to reach those people before they get to Florida.”
Ms. Zimmerman explained that additional assistance from the Department of Defense was provided to the Coast Guard and that she would be surprised “if we haven’t already provided additional shipboard assistance” to the Coast Guard, State Department, and others involved in protecting Americans in Haiti as the country deals with its ongoing crisis.
The U.S. military, as of March 13, had evacuated some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti while increasing its security presence.
The country also declared a state of emergency in early March after fighting escalated between criminal gangs and government forces. Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has been unable to return to Haiti after its airport was shut down, is currently in Kenya working on a deal with the United Nations to back a security mission to restore order to the country.
