Ramirez leads 31 members of Congress to Demand Trump End Unlawful Plans in Cuba, Stops Usage of Guantánamo Bay for Immigration Detention

Washington, DC -This week, Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), a member of the Homeland Security Committee, led 31 members of Congress to demand that the Trump administration end the use of the Guantánamo Bay naval base for immigrant detention and cease any unlawful plans for military action against Cuba.

The members argue that with sanctions and unlawful threats of military action, the Trump administration is deepening the humanitarian crisis in Cuba. At the same time, the administration is once again planning to use the Guantánamo Base, a prison with a history of dehumanizing and abusing people, to detain Cuban immigrants.

"U.S. policies have deliberately targeted Cuban civilians and contributed to their displacement as well as their deaths. Planning for their detention at Guantánamo is not a response to migration-it is an attempt to contain the consequences of the exact policies that are driving it," wrote the members. "Even more concerning are emerging reports that the Department of Defense is considering potential military action against Cuba. Such action would be unlawful, deeply destabilizing, and catastrophic for the Cuban population, while further increasing displacement, exacerbating mass suffering, and undermining U.S. interests in the region. It must be unequivocally rejected."

The members are requesting that the administration:

1. Immediately abandon any plans to use Guantánamo Bay for the detention of migrants, including in the event of a surge from Cuba.
2. Suspend Operation Southern Guard and halt all transfers of migrants to Guantánamo, with a view toward permanently closing the facility and returning the land back to the community.
3. Lift the coercive economic measures-including the fuel blockade and related sanctions-that are contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Cuba and driving forced migration.
4. Abandon reported plans for U.S. military action against Cuba. The United States must not respond to a crisis it is creating with policies that deepen suffering, undermine the rule of law, and repeat the gravest failures of its past-and must finally bring an end, once and for all, to the black hole of violence and torture that Guantánamo has come to represent.

"The United States must not respond to a crisis it is creating with policies that deepen suffering, undermine the rule of law, and repeat the gravest failures of its past-and must finally bring an end, once and for all, to the black hole of violence and torture that Guantánamo has come to represent," ended the members.

The letter is signed by U.S. Representatives Nanette Barragán, Greg Casar, Yvette Clarke, Steve Cohen, Jasmine Crockett, Danny Davis, Mark DeSaulnier, Maxine Dexter, Valerie Foushee, Maxwell Frost, Jesús "Chuy" García, Sylvia Garcia, Dan Goldman, Adelita Grijalva, Jonathan Jackson, Pramila Jayapal, Henry Johnson, Robin Kelly, Ro Khanna, Summer Lee, James McGovern, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Mark Pocan, Ayanna Pressley, Linda Sánchez, Janice Schakowsky, Rashida Tlaib, Paul Tonko, Nydia Velázquez, and Maxine Waters.

Read the full letter HERE.