Pentagon reviews plans to cut troops handling migrants at Guantánamo by as much as half

In this Aug. 29, 2021, file photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, a flag flies at half-staff as seen from Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON — Military officials are reviewing plans that would cut the number of U.S. troops deployed to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba to handle detained migrants by as much as half, because there are no detainees there now and the program has stumbled during legal challenges, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said the military’s Southern Command was asked to give Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth a plan that would outline how many troops are actually needed and what additional space may be required if more detainees are sent there.

That plan, said officials, is expected to recommend that a number of the troops be sent home -- and one official said the decision could chop the 900 troops there now in half.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the decisions are not yet finalized. Southern Command is preparing options that would address the fact that there have been no migrants transferred to the base since early March, but the administration has warned that future “high-threat” detainees may be sent to the base.

U.S. authorities have transferred at least 290 detainees to Guantanamo since February. But on March 11, the 40 people still housed there were flown off the base to Louisiana.

The base is best known for housing foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but it has a separate facility used for decades to hold migrants intercepted trying to reach the U.S. by sea. That use had been expanded recently to include some of the migrants swept up in President Donald Trump’s broader campaign to secure the southern border.

Trump has said he will send the worst criminal migrants to Guantanamo Bay, but civil rights attorneys say many detainees transferred there don’t have a criminal record and that the administration has exceeded its authority in violation of U.S. immigration law.

A judge recently ruled against immigration and civil rights advocates who sued over the transfers, but it largely hinged on the fact that, at the current time, there were no migrant detainees being held there.

Meanwhile, the 900 troops at the base have little to do. There are roughly 500 Army soldiers, nearly 300 Marines and several dozen sailors and airmen deployed to the base for the detainee program.

Officials said the new Southern Command plan will likely send a significant number home, but they or others may be told to be prepared to deploy if needed. Currently, nearly 800 additional U.S.-based soldiers are already on prepare-to-deploy orders and could be sent to the base quickly if needed.

Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration this month to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the U.S. to Guantanamo Bay, filing statements from men held there who said they were mistreated in conditions that one of them called “a living hell.”

The judge indicated a willingness to revisit the issue if and when the government sends more detainees to Guantanamo. He said he wouldn’t set a timeline for how quickly the government has to tell him of future transfers.

U.S. authorities say they began transferring migrants to Guantanamo Bay with the first military transport flight out of Fort Bliss on Feb. 4. Initial flights transported Venezuelans -- a prelude to the transfer of 177 detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Venezuela, with a brief stopover in Honduras.