A group of bipartisan U.S. House Armed Services Committee members, including ranking member Rep. Don Davis, recently visited Naval Station Guantanamo Bay. The committee has jurisdiction over laws, programs and agencies concerning the armed forces as well as any military operations.
Davis' role as ranking member means he's second in charge. The experience was “eye-opening,” according to Davis on social media.
“Clearly we have complex immigration policy and we need to move forward with securing our border," Davis told Tim Boyum on Capital Tonight.
The experience will not only help him when voting on future bills, such as deportation, but Davis said he also leaves with a more appreciative tone.
“I came away not only with a better perspective but also with a deeper appreciation for the service members and federal workers who work tirelessly to safeguard the American people,” Davis said.
President Donald Trump gave the Department of Homeland Security the order to use the naval station to potentially hold up to 30,000 migrants at the end of January.
“We didn’t get here because of one person or one party. I believe we kicked the can down the road for too long," Davis explained. "The people across the state of North Carolina, across the country, they have demonstrated that, 'hey, y’all need to go to D.C. and do something.'”
At one migrant operation center, the delegation reviewed the processing of low-threat detainees, and Davis met with service members from Camp Lejeune, tasked with securing the installation’s perimeter.
However, a recent lawsuit against the Trump administration aims to stop the transfer of 10 detained migrants to Guantanamo, citing inhumane conditions.
“It was easy to lose the will to live,” Raul David Garcia, a former Guantanamo detainee sent back to Venezuela, said. “I had been kidnapped in Mexico before, and at least my captors there told me their names.”
They were kept in small, windowless cells, with lights on around the clock, hindering sleep, and had inadequate food and medical care, the men said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other DHS officials also provided demonstrations to the delegation led by House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers.
“Looking at the facility in the high-threat area in particular, I believe steps are being taken to make sure people are being protected from some of the most dangerous people," Davis said when describing what he saw at Guantanamo Bay.
There’s still much work that needs to be done to bring things to Homeland Security standards, though, he added. But the issue at the border remains, he said, that drugs coming across the border continue to negatively impact communities across the country.
The base doesn't have a history of treating its captives well. One Guantanamo Bay prisoner who went through an interrogation program after the 9/11 attacks said in 2021 some of the techniques the CIA used were terrifying.
Some of the the things the prisoner, Majid Khan, spoke of were having his head held under water to the point of near drowning and doused repeatedly with ice water to keep him awake for days.
Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is about 450 miles southeast of Miami, Florida, in Cuba.