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The United States has resumed sending Cuban migrants to the Guantanamo naval base, reviving a practice laden with symbolism and controversy that had been on hold for two months.
The transfer of 22 men from U.S. territory marks the first shipment of Cuban citizens to that facility since January and reignites fears, memories, and legal questions.
According to The New York Times, the Cubans arrived this week at the base located in eastern Cuba on a charter flight from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) coming from Louisiana.
With them, Guantánamo is once again operating as a migration detention center, despite the judicial setbacks, high costs, and harsh criticisms that have surrounded this policy throughout the year.
Sources cited by the U.S. newspaper indicate that at least five of the newcomers were classified as “high-risk illegal foreigners” and were detained in a prison that previously housed alleged members of Al Qaeda. The rest remain in dormitory-style facilities, historically used for Caribbean migrants seeking asylum.
The Department of Homeland Security refrained from specifying what the final outcome will be for these Cubans and whether they will be returned to the hands of the regime in Havana.
The return of Cubans to Guantánamo comes after months of fluctuations. In March, U.S. officials defended in court their authority to detain migrants at the base, while organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounced “inhumane” conditions, limitations on legal access, and testimonies from detainees describing the place as a “living hell,” according to reports from Associated Press.
Days later, the Trump administration itself removed the last migrants remaining there and transferred them to detention centers in the United States, leaving the base empty for the second time in a few weeks.
In April, the issue once again shook Washington when it was revealed that the administration had spent nearly 40 million dollars in just one month to detain around 400 immigrants in Guantánamo.
Democratic senators labeled the operation as an unnecessary waste and harshly questioned the use of military resources for immigration purposes, according to The New York Times.
This was compounded by criticism regarding facilities lacking air conditioning and adequate electrical supply, along with incendiary statements, such as those from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who reportedly claimed, according to EFE, that some migrants were “worse than members of Al Qaeda.”
The legal background is also significant. The recent relocation of Cubans is the first since a federal judge in Washington ruled that the Trump administration exceeded its authority by detaining migrants at the naval base.
In December, another judge blocked the government's attempt to dismiss a lawsuit against this policy and, at least preliminarily, sided with the arguments of the ACLU, which considers it illegal to send migrants to a military base in foreign territory solely as a "political spectacle."
For Cubans, Guantánamo is no ordinary place. In the 1990s, tens of thousands were held there after being intercepted at sea, in an experience marked by uncertainty and dislocation.
Today, decades later, the return of Cuban citizens to that base revives old ghosts amid an unprecedented migration crisis, where fear of deportation, family separation, and legal limbo are part of everyday life.
While Washington insists on defending the use of Guantánamo as a migratory tool, the resumption of these transfers once again puts Cubans at the center of a policy that is as costly as it is controversial, with the human impact remaining, for many, the most painful part of the story.
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