EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A border Democrat on Monday ramped up her crusade against the Trump administration’s use of military resources to hold and deport migrants.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, and eight other Democrats sent a letter to the White House protesting the taking of Department of Defense personnel away from their mission to protect the country against military threats and instead availing them for immigration enforcement.
And in a news conference in El Paso, she said an oversight trip to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base reinforced her belief migrant detention in military bases is expensive, hinders oversight and affects military readiness.
“The reason I keep bringing up the consequences of using military sites is because we have evidence it degrades our military, it sets back our readiness,” Escobar said. “And if folks aren’t concerned about the myriad of humanitarian reasons why we shouldn’t be doing this, they should at least be concerned about the impact to the United States military.”
Her trip to Guantanamo preceded the administration’s decision to transfer to Louisiana all 40 migrants held at the naval base in Cuba. Still, Escobar said she wasn’t allowed to speak to any migrants while she was there.
“The government should not use military bases as an extension of the Department of Homeland Security. We saw here in El Paso the previous administration use Fort Bliss for an emergency intake facility because there were no detention beds for unaccompanied children arriving,” Escobar said. “We also had Operation Allies Welcome after Afghanistan. We did an assessment after that experience and we noted that it set back our military readiness by two years.
“There are real consequences to our national defense when we abuse our military and our installations.”
Escobar also expressed concerns about the possible use of Fort Bliss as a “mass deportation hub,” as reported by national news media citing Trump administration sources.
“I have not gotten a lot of information […] They told me no final decision had been made, but I can tell you based on the conversations it sounds that it’s highly likely that it will happen,” she said.
Escobar said she has seen no evidence of upcoming bid requests for services, but allegedly heard talk of contractors ramping up activity in preparation.
“This could be one of those no-bid efforts,” she said.
Border Report on Monday reached out to the Department of Defense at Fort Bliss and is awaiting a response.
The nine Democrats’ letter to Trump makes reference to plans to use Fort Bliss as a “testbed” for migrant detention and deportation, and that such a model could be expanded to at least five additional military sites.
“Plans for mass detention efforts, with few realistic goals to measure success, on a U.S. military installation, risk costing the Department of Defense hundreds of millions – if not billions – of unbudgeted dollars and thousands of man-hours which cannot be regained,” the letter states. “It will also severely strain the limited infrastructure on our installations, and we strongly urge you to cease this misuse of DoD funds and personnel immediately.”
Read: Read More