Private Company Running Guantánamo Immigrant Jail Is Accused of Rights Abuses

The U.S. navy transported 17 new immigrant detainees to the Guantánamo Bay navy base on Sunday, simply earlier than efforts to jail an anticipated 30,000 immigrants in tent camps on the base have been halted over considerations the makeshift amenities don’t meet ICE’s detention requirements. Now the non-public federal contractor behind the Guantánamo detention website is underneath renewed scrutiny. Investigative journalist José Olivares shares what we find out about Akima Infrastructure Safety, an Alaska Native company that counts amongst its myriad federal contracts immigration detention amenities throughout the US, together with some which might be at present underneath investigation for human rights abuses. The dearth of transparency on the subject of the corporate’s practices and the enlargement of migrant detention at a high-security location like Guantánamo signifies that questions stay over present circumstances and even the precise quantity of people that have been incarcerated there, explains Olivares.

TRANSCRIPT

It is a rush transcript. Copy might not be in its ultimate type.

AMY GOODMAN: That is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Conflict and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth is visiting Guantánamo right this moment in his first go to to the infamous naval base since he was confirmed amidst rising criticism of the switch and detention of migrants there. On Monday, the Trump administration halted plans to deal with detained migrants in tent constructions at Guantánamo over considerations the amenities don’t meet detention requirements set by ICE — that’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The tents lack electrical energy and air con.

Earlier this month, Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem visited Guantánamo days after the primary detained immigrants have been flown there, and claimed, with out proof, that individuals deported there have been harmful criminals.

HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: These people are the worst of the worst that we pulled off of our streets, so —

DANA BASH: Who’re they?

HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Murderers, rapists. After I was there, I used to be in a position to watch one of many flights touchdown and them unload about 15 completely different of those criminals. These have been primarily baby pedophiles, people who have been on the market trafficking kids, trafficking medication, and have been pulled off of our streets and put at this facility.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Kristi Noem, now the pinnacle of the Division of Homeland Safety. The New York Instances simply had an exposé on a girl in Colombia, who’s Venezuelan, who noticed her brother in video coming to Guantánamo, and he or she mentioned, “My brother isn’t a harmful prison come. He got here into the US.” The administration talked concerning the tattoos, these persons are members of gangs. And he or she mentioned his tattoos are of Michael Jordan as a result of he loves Michael Jordan.

Nicely, final week, because the Trump administration abruptly deported 177 Venezuelan migrants who had been detained at Guantánamo, they admitted that fifty of them had no prison file, aside from getting into the U.S. unlawfully.

In the meantime, 5 Senate Democrats, led by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, despatched a letter to President Trump Monday difficult the switch of migrants to Guantánamo as “unlawful and unjustified,” calling the transfer, quote, “unprecedented, illegal and dangerous to American nationwide safety, values and pursuits,” the letter says. It goes on, “There is no such thing as a foundation in U.S. immigration legislation for transferring noncitizens arrested inside the US to a location exterior of the US for detention previous to or for the aim of conducting removing proceedings,” unquote.

We flip now to a brand new investigation that reveals how the non-public company operating the migrant detention heart at Guantánamo has a historical past of rights abuses at different migrant detention amenities in the US. The conglomerate is named Akima. It has over 40 subsidiaries and greater than 2,000 contracts with the U.S. authorities. Final yr, the Biden administration awarded a contract to run the Guantánamo Migrant Operations Heart to Akima subsidiary.

We’re joined right here in New York by investigative reporter José Olivares, whose newest piece for The Guardian is headlined “Revealed: US agency operating Guantánamo migrant jail accused over rights abuses.”

José, it’s nice to have you ever with us. Lay out what you discovered.

JOSÉ OLIVARES: Thanks a lot, Amy.

Sure, so, clearly, the Guantánamo naval base has an extended historical past, and it’s infamous for the navy jail that has housed “warfare on terror” detainees. There’s been allegations of torture and abuse there. However what actually the general public didn’t know an excessive amount of previous to Trump’s govt order is that for many years there has existed a migrant detention heart on the Guantánamo naval base. Now, this facility is split into two. One a part of it’s run by the State Division, and the opposite a part of it’s run by ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Now, ICE, what I discovered is that final yr, the Biden administration gave the ICE contract to Akima Infrastructure Safety, which is that this large, large federal authorities contractor. And this contract is value $163.4 million to run the Migrant Operations Heart, which is what it’s referred to as. Now, technically, it’s on the naval base, so it’s extraordinarily secretive. We don’t understand how operations happen, what the circumstances are like for migrants there. However what’s essential to notice is that for many years this facility has been used to detain migrants, primarily those that are fleeing from the Caribbean, making an attempt to make it to the U.S., and are intercepted at sea by the Coast Guard. Now, when they’re intercepted at sea, they’re despatched to the Migration Operations Heart, the place they’re held and detained and processed, and generally both deported again to their residence international locations or repatriated to 3rd nations.

Nonetheless, what I discovered with this investigation is that for many years, because the early 2000s, because the Bush administration, non-public contractors have been operating this detention heart. First, it first began with GEO Group, one of many greatest non-public jail corporations within the U.S. Then it moved to MVM, Included, which is a protection contractor. And now, final yr, the Biden administration gave Akima this large contract to run the power for not less than 5 years.

What can be essential to notice right here is that as a result of it’s on the naval base, this can be very secretive. So, we didn’t know that all through numerous presidential administrations, from Bush to Obama to Trump to Biden and now underneath Trump once more, migrants have been held at this ICE facility that’s at Guantánamo. There’s been no public oversight over the power. There haven’t been any public reviews, despite the fact that they’re congressionally mandated by members of Congress to publish reviews concerning the circumstances within the facility.

However what I additionally discovered is that this firm, Akima Infrastructure Safety, is an element of a bigger conglomerate referred to as Akima. And Akima has over 40 subsidiaries. It’s an enormous, large firm that contracts with the federal government. And this firm additionally runs different Immigration and Customs Enforcement amenities all through the U.S. I used to be capable of finding not less than 5 of them, and three of them have been actually extensively criticized for the circumstances inside and for the remedy of migrants across the U.S.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, José, who runs this firm? How did it handle to assemble so many federal contracts? Might you discuss slightly bit about its historical past and the personalities concerned, if any, that you just discovered?

JOSÉ OLIVARES: Completely. So, the historical past of Akima is definitely fairly, fairly fascinating. It’s a member of the Nana Regional Company, which is an Alaskan Native company. Now, Alaskan Native companies have been created within the ’70s. They have been created type of in response to protests and social actions to ensure that the federal authorities to type of grant Indigenous individuals in Alaska federal contracts and simply extra alternatives, you already know, inside their communities. And so, the Nana Regional Company, it’s owned by primarily Indigenous individuals in Alaska. It’s an Alaskan Native company. So, all the shares, all the — every little thing is owned by Native Alaskan individuals.

However inside the Nana Regional Company is Akima. And inside Akima is these 40 completely different subsidiaries. And these 40 completely different subsidiaries have dozens upon dozens upon dozens of federal authorities contracts. They work with dozens of federal companies. They work with the Division of Protection. They work with the Division of Inside. They work with ICE. I discovered one occasion wherein one of many Akima’s subsidiaries was employed to do upkeep of helicopters in Saudi Arabia for the navy, but in addition to coach Saudi navy forces — simply, you already know, completely different IT providers, infrastructure. So it’s an enormous authorities, federal authorities contractor.

Nonetheless, as a result of it’s an Alaskan Native company, the shares for the corporate can’t be traded, they will’t be bought, so it’s in a position to type of escape any type of regulation from the Securities and Alternate Fee. However due to its standing as an Alaskan Native company and due to the, you already know, over 40 subsidiaries that Akima has, it’s in a position to in a short time get contracts which might be presupposed to be allotted from the federal authorities to small companies. So, they’re technically a small enterprise that’s minority-owned, and that’s how they’re in a position to type of get these, you already know, over 2,000 federal contracts.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And speaking once more concerning the Guantánamo detention heart, what’s the state of affairs when it comes to detainees, immigrant detainees there, and their entry to attorneys?

JOSÉ OLIVARES: Yeah, so, the entry to attorneys is extraordinarily restricted. And this has been ongoing, you already know, for many years that the migrant detention heart has existed on the Guantánamo naval base.

Now, what’s essential to notice is that the Migrant Operations Heart, which is what it’s referred to as, is separate from the navy jail. However what we do perceive from the Trump administration’s actions is that migrants who have been detained within the U.S. after which despatched to Guantánamo for additional detention, they have been housed each on the navy — on the navy installations, the navy jail, and on the Migrant Operations Heart. Now, this Migrant Operations Heart is split into two sections: One part is run by ICE, one is run by the State Division. However we simply don’t know precisely how many individuals are detained there, due to the dearth of transparency that, once more, spans a long time and spans numerous presidential administrations.

Now, I believe what’s essential to notice right here is that as a result of it’s on the naval base, it’s in Cuba, proper? So, migrants who, traditionally, primarily have fled from Haiti, from Cuba, from the Caribbean have been intercepted at sea after which have been despatched to the Guantánamo facility for additional processing. However we simply don’t know what number of have been despatched there. Some estimates that I noticed in a few of the authorities contracting data present that between 2021 and 2024, there have been between 4 and 40 migrants who’ve been detained there. However this Migrant Operations Heart, what’s fascinating about it and what I discovered with the federal authorities contracting data is that it has the capability to carry 120 migrants, 120 individuals. However ICE requires the contractor to have the ability to broaden the power with a tent metropolis to detain as much as 400 migrants.

So, you already know, there’s quite a lot of unanswered questions right here. There’s a lack of transparency. We don’t know what the circumstances are like. And since migrants traditionally who’ve been detained there have both been deported to their residence international locations or despatched to a 3rd nation, we don’t hear an excessive amount of about — from the migrants themselves who’ve been detained there, as a result of they primarily actually haven’t been dropped at the U.S.

AMY GOODMAN: And would these migrants despatched to Guantánamo be counted underneath deportees, as a result of that is space managed by the U.S. in Cuba, in order that they’re simply being despatched there, not deported?

JOSÉ OLIVARES: Right, sure. So, they’re nonetheless underneath the custody of ICE and the Division of Protection.

AMY GOODMAN: And ultimate query, and we simply have a few minute: The human rights abuses that Akima has been discovered responsible of?

JOSÉ OLIVARES: That’s proper. So, three completely different amenities have confronted extreme, extreme criticism. There’s one facility in Florida referred to as the North Krome processing heart, which is owned by Akima, and the Division of Homeland Safety Workplace of Inspector Normal did a federal audit on the facility and located numerous cases of inappropriate use of pressure, together with one case that I discovered wherein guards at this facility opened the slot to the solitary confinement door of a person who was detained there and pepper-sprayed him, regardless of him displaying no resistance or risk to anyone else. There’s additionally a lawsuit for pressured labor on the Buffalo detention heart in upstate New York. And there’s additionally been criticism of one of many solitary confinement models in Texas that it runs.

AMY GOODMAN: And at last, 30 seconds, you wrote a piece for Drop Website, “Biden gave Trump the blueprint to lock up 30,000 migrants in a personal ICE jail at Guantánamo Bay.”

JOSÉ OLIVARES: That’s proper, yeah. I believe it’s essential to acknowledge that this deportation system, this Guantánamo migrant detention heart, has been handed down from administration to administration. There actually — you already know, from Democrats to Republicans, there was no vital change between administrations.

AMY GOODMAN: José Olivares, I wish to thanks for being with us, investigative journalist. We’ll hyperlink to your piece in The Guardian, “Revealed: US agency operating Guantánamo migrant jail accused over rights abuses,” in addition to your piece for Drop Website about Biden giving Trump the blueprint. We’ll additionally do an interview with you in Spanish after the present and submit it on our Spanish website at democracynow.org.

Subsequent up, we take a look at the nonprofit DAWN submitting a grievance with the Worldwide Prison Courtroom towards Biden, Blinken and Secretary of Protection Austin over Israel’s warfare in Gaza. Stick with us.