During a visit to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last week, Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said she and other lawmakers observed U.S. service members guarding empty tents that were intended to hold undocumented immigrants.
“They told me it cost about $16 million already, and at the time I was there, they told us that there were only 41 immigrants that they were holding, and at max right now, they can have 225,” Jacobs told NBC News in an interview last night. “So we saw service members guarding empty tents that aren’t usable.”
Trump had planned to house 30,000 immigrants at the U.S. naval base, but NBC News reported last week that the plan has faced major obstacles.
Jacobs, who represents the San Diego area, said she and the bipartisan group of lawmakers were not allowed to interact with the migrants.
“I think all of us had a lot of questions about the money, how few immigrants were actually there, in regards to how much money is being spent, sort of like the operational questions,” she said.
Jacobs also said the undocumented immigrants were divided by threat level.
“The low-threat folks are in sort of more communal living space,” she said. “The high threat folks are in Camp Six, which is one of the areas that had been used for war on terror prisoners.”
“So it looks like a pretty standard super-max prison, and our service members are living sometimes in hardened facilities,” Jacobs added. “Some of them are living in tents, and it was clear that the morale was quite low among the service members.”