SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The Trump administration is putting more military resources toward immigration enforcement.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah. The Pentagon is making space at two military bases to detain immigrants who are suspected of being in the United States without legal status. The administration also plans to expand Guantanamo Bay - the base there - to house more migrants.
PFEIFFER: NPR immigration policy reporter Ximena Bustillo has reviewed internal memos spelling all of this out, and she's with us in the studio this morning. Hi, Ximena.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Good morning, Sacha.
PFEIFFER: This is not the first time that military resources are being used for immigration enforcement under President Trump. So what exactly is being added?
BUSTILLO: The Homeland Security Department is adding one military base in Indiana and one in New Jersey to a list of places to detain migrants. These bases will be available through September. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, will use their personnel and contractors and be completely responsible for the care of the people who are detained there, as well as the transportation and security at the locations. No military personnel will be involved here.
We reached out to the Pentagon, and there was no immediate response to a comment on these plans. But the military has been a big resource for DHS. They are able to do this because the Trump administration declared a national emergency at the southern border. The emergency declaration allows for the administration to shuffle around resources, such as by taking defense resources and giving them to DHS. Pentagon memos from last week say that these two military facilities will be used on a temporary basis to house what it calls, quote, "single adult, non-high-threat illegal aliens who have links to transnational crime organizations or criminal drug activity."
PFEIFFER: The memo, as we noted, also says that detention space at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base will be expanded, but we heard that back in January. So what's been approved that's new?
BUSTILLO: Guantanamo, as you know, can currently hold about 200 people at a time, and that will now double to 400. Still, this continues to be a controversial use of the base. And as you noted, when Trump first announced that migrants would be going to Guantanamo, he said he wanted tens of thousands of beds, and we're still very far from that.
PFEIFFER: Right. They said 30,000. Experts at the time said that this seems unlikely. It seems that it's still a struggle to get to that number. So that's space. This obviously will take personnel. What about adding people to help with this?
BUSTILLO: You know, there's about 700 service members that have been tapped for detention duty in places like Florida, Louisiana and Texas. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has now approved 500 troops to assist ICE in seven other states, so that's a separate initiative. There's no timing on when those additional troops will be called up or when they will serve.
PFEIFFER: Why does the administration want to use these bases?
BUSTILLO: The request to use additional military bases and the expansion of Guantanamo comes as the Trump administration has continued to push to arrest and detain more people in the country without legal status. DHS has nearly 57,000 people in immigration detention, though it only has about 41,000 beds. Here's border czar Tom Homan talking to reporters outside the White House last week.
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TOM HOMAN: Beds are important. Last week, I woke up one morning. We had less than 200 beds. We'll fill them by half the day. So we're constantly having to change flight arrangements and move deportations as quick as we can, empty beds. We shouldn't be in that position.
BUSTILLO: The department has sought out contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, local jurisdictions and military bases to detain migrants, and more is to come. The Trump administration is expected to be able to scale up its detention capacity due to an influx of funding from Congress. The recent tax and spending bill set aside $45 billion for immigration detention centers and $30 billion for more ICE personnel, transportation costs and to maintain existing ICE facilities.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR's Ximena Bustillo. Thank you.
BUSTILLO: Thanks.
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