Democrat lawmakers are pushing back against Trump administration plans to detain thousands of undocumented immigrants at U.S. military sites.
In a letter signed by nine Democrats and sent to the White House and Pentagon on Monday, the lawmakers question the use of military resources to hold and deport migrants, arguing the effort takes Defense personnel away from their mission.
“As you know, the mission of the Department of Defense (DoD) is to protect and defend our nation against military threats, not to conduct migrant detention, immigration enforcement, or deportation operations,” according to the letter, led by Democratic Reps. Veronica Escobar (Texas), Jason Crow (Colo.) and John Garamendi (Calif.).
“Dramatically expanded use of U.S. military personnel and facilities to support mass detention operations, both domestically and overseas at Guantánamo Bay, has already diverted, and will continue to divert, military personnel and resources from the DoD’s core warfighting mission, the very same one you claimed to want to restore,” they write.
At issue is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plan to make up for a shortfall of space at immigration facilities by asking the Pentagon for resources to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Trump administration has targeted Fort Bliss, Texas, as a hub that could eventually hold up to 10,000 migrants as they wait to be deported, with other sites later developed at bases in Utah, near Niagara Falls, N.Y., and several other locations, The New York Times reported.
Escobar, whose congressional district includes Fort Bliss, in the past several weeks has warned against turning military installations into detention centers, arguing it would set back America’s combat readiness by as much as two years.
“Plans for mass detention efforts, with few realistic goals to measure success, on a U.S. military installation risks costing DoD hundreds of millions of unbudgeted dollars — if not billions — and thousands of man hours which cannot be regained,” the letter states.
While previous administrations have held some immigrants at military bases — including an effort to temporarily house some 75,000 Afghan refugees at Fort Bliss and seven other installations in 2021 — the Trump administration’s plan would greatly expand the practice.
The administration has already used Naval Station Guantánamo Bay to detain migrants in the past several months, but the effort has been decried as a costly photo-op after reports emerged that all 40 remaining individuals at the base had been transferred back to the U.S. last week.
In the letter, lawmakers also question the “unprecedented use of military assets” for tasks DHS is typically responsible for, including the use of military aircraft to deport migrants, something the administration has not publicly promised to reimburse the Pentagon for.
“Such actions are an incredible misuse of defense funds when usual ICE procedures for deportation purposes employ charter planes at a small fraction of the costs associated with operating a C-17 or C-130 military aircraft, as your administration has directed,” they write.
“Most glaringly, your administration has not sought to provide justification as to why such military assets and the costs accrued were considered necessary or fiscally sound.”
The lawmakers ask for the answers to a number of questions within 30 days, including whether an assessment has been conducted on using military installations and personnel for DHS purposes as opposed to alternative options, and how many dollars and from which funding accounts DOD has used for DHS support.
Thay also want to know if any military construction or other programmed projects have or will be paused, delayed or canceled as a result of the switching of resources to DHS at military installations.
