STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have a clearer picture this morning of how the Trump administration is using the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The United States recently sent a group of migrants to the base. Now they've been sent away on the way to their eventual destination - their home country of Venezuela.
INSKEEP: And we've learned some information about them along the way. So let's go to NPR immigration correspondent Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Sergio, good morning.
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What do you know about this flight?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Well, the Trump administration announced yesterday that 177 Venezuelans who had been in Guantanamo Bay for a couple of weeks were removed to Honduras. That's all but one of the migrants who had been detained there. Honduras was sort of a layover for them. The Venezuelan government met them later and flew them back home, and the migrants landed in Venezuela last night around 10 p.m. local time.
INSKEEP: OK. So United States, Guantanamo, Honduras, Venezuela, zigzagging around the Caribbean and surrounding areas. So I want to figure out what we've learned here. What do you know about who these people are or were?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: So the administration had said, Steve, everyone sent to Guantanamo were hardened criminals and that many were members of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang. But now we know that's not true. In court documents released because of a lawsuit by the ACLU, the Trump administration admitted that nearly 30% of the detainees were considered, quote, "low-threat illegal aliens." Many of the mothers of the detainees had been pushing back against that narrative. One of them is Yohana Roldan. Her son, Yoiner Purroy Roldan, had been accused of being a member of Tren de Aragua.
YOHANA ROLDAN: (Speaking Spanish).
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: "I know my son has not committed a crime," she says, "and he doesn't deserve to go through all of this just for trying to have a better future." And I should say, Steve, NPR didn't find any criminal record for Purroy Roldan, and it appears at least a third of the people with him in Guantanamo had not committed crimes.
INSKEEP: OK. So I guess some of them were accused of crimes. Some of them were not accused of crimes other than entering the United States illegally...
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Right.
INSKEEP: ...And they went to Guantanamo. Here's my next question. If they sent people to Guantanamo briefly, only to send them onward to other places, it's a waystation. It's a transfer point. What's the point?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: That's a good question. The administration knows that sending migrants to Guantanamo is very costly and very complicated logistically. But it's clear many of these migrants were used as part of a public relations operation by the White House. Most, if not all, of the people they sent to Guantanamo had already been in detention during the Biden administration. So these were not new arrestees. And when they were put on a plane, there were cameras, and those visuals were published across the world. It also tells us that Guantanamo will likely be a temporary detention facility that will be used to house migrants from countries where deportations might be more challenging.
INSKEEP: OK. So they're sending a signal, either to the U.S. public or to future migrants, about what they want to do to people who come to the United States. Another question, now, Sergio. What was the lawsuit that you mentioned earlier?
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. That lawsuit was filed by the ACLU because, for a few weeks, no one knew where these migrants were. The family members had stopped hearing from their loved ones, and they assumed they had been transferred to Guantanamo, but the government never told them. And so the ACLU was alleging that the migrants did not have access to telephones to call attorneys or family members.
But despite this new development of removing people from Guantanamo, the ACLU says the lawsuit continues. Last night, I talked with the lead ACLU attorney in this case. He told me the removal of all detainees won't stop the lawsuit unless the Trump administration tells the court they will not transfer anyone else to Guantanamo.
INSKEEP: NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. Thanks for your reporting. Really appreciate it.
MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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