- by Peter Farmer
- The Guardian
- Issue #2192
ACFS Perth action outside US consulate 17 March 2026.
30 US Congress members have written to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio, and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin urging the administration to abandon plans for military action against Cuba and to stop using Guantanamo Bay as a detention centre for migrants.
The Congress members also urged the Trump administration to end the blockade – which they called “coercive economic measures.” They pointed out that the fuel blockade and other sanctions have caused a humanitarian crisis in Cuba and driven forced migration.
They also urged the administration to not only stop using Guantanamo as a dumping ground for migrants, but to work towards closing the facility and returning the land to the community.
The Senators objected to a recent proposal to use the US base at Guantanamo Bay as a holding camp to “deal with those migrants” if there was a “migration surge” from Cuba.
The Trump administration has made a big show of being harsh on migrants. As with Australian policies of cruelty towards migrants, the numbers involved in Operation Southern Guard don’t add up. The congresspeople pointed out that the operation cost roughly US $170,000 (about $238,000 AUD) per migrant per year.
The congress letter shows a knowledge of Cuba, acknowledging that Cuba’s infant mortality rate had been the lowest in the hemisphere before the sanctions caused it to nearly double.
The letter finished by saying that 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.”
