A Note from the Author and Editor: For the past month, I have been working on an update on the Marshallese who have been impacted by the immigration policy changes this year. There is some good news that systems have been developed (and seem to be working) to support the repatriation of those deported. However, I came across some very bad news last Monday. I could not believe it when I saw through the ICE locator that the individual I was checking on had been moved to Guantánamo. This month the Trump administration has moved 72 immigration detainees all with “final deportation orders”. News reports confirmed that among these immigration detainees are individuals from the Marshall Islands and Micronesia (FSM).
Giff Johnson reported a couple of days ago for RNZ News and he will be writing an update for the Marshall Islands Journal. Chikin Melele is still hoping to learn more about who from Micronesia is being detained. Please expect a Marshallese and Chuukese translation soon. Read on for more context about Guantánamo and the Marshallese man who was denied an immigration hearing and moved to Guantánamo for deportation – friends and co-workers described a man who had turned his life around, worked hard to support his family, became a shipping lead at George’s, and always had a “iakwe” for everyone.
Update (July 25, 2025): FSM Ambassador to the U.S. confirms that the FSM national moved to the Miami field office for Guantánamo returned to ICE detention in Arizona. There is currently only the one Marshallese among the immigration detainees in Guantánamo.
On January 28, Hilary Hosia reported on the first of what was just a ramping up of immigration enforcement across the United States. Just the day before, a Marshallese family shared a video live on Facebook of uniformed officers attempting to detain a man from his family’s home. They did not have a signed warrant, and Junior (name has been changed) remained inside his home where they could not arrest him. But, in the video, the officer said that they’d come back with a warrant. Junior was detained one week later.
I followed up with friends and former co-workers of Junior to follow-up on what had happened to him. As of June 23, we had confirmed using the ICE locator online that he was still at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana. I tried to speak with an immigration attorney about Junior’s case, but I was unable to get further information without his alien registration number (or i-94 entry number for COFA citizens).
I had a feeling that I should look him up again using the ICE locator tool last Monday, and I saw that his location had changed to a place called JTF Camp Six with contact information in Florida. With all the talk of Alligator Alcatraz, which I hate to even call it that, I was concerned by the name of the facility. As I searched for more information, I learned that JTF Camp Six is part of the detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay. A CBS News report from July 8 confirms that Marshallese and Micronesian nationals are currently being detained at Guantánamo.
According to CBS News, as of July 8, 72 immigration detainees are being held in Guantánamo, 58 with serious criminal records. The CBS report lists convictions for homicide, sexual offenses, child pornography, assault with a weapon, kidnapping, drug smuggling and robbery. Junior does have a “serious criminal record”. When he was a young man, and just a new father, he was involved in a domestic dispute which escalated involving police. He was charged with domestic battery, but he accepted a negotiated guilty plea to “terroristic threatening” and a few months later he also accepted a guilty plea for parole violation (drunk driving with property damage). He served time in jail, but he was released early because of the pandemic.
Junior had worked hard to redeem himself from his past mistakes. He worked throughout the pandemic at George’s processing chicken. He turned his life around, taking care of his daughters, parents and extended family as a line supervisor and lead in shipping. He was active in church and he always had a “iakwe” for everyone.
The last time Junior spoke with friends he was disheartened and demoralized. It was around Mother’s Day, and he was second-guessing his decision not to sign the papers for deportation. His friends encouraged him to wait for an immigration court hearing to plead his case. While 18 other Marshallese detainees returned to the Marshall Islands, this man sat in the Winn Correctional Facility for six months hoping for a chance to take his case before an immigration judge. Instead, he’s been sent to an even worse facility on a U.S. military base in Cuba.
Like the U.S. military base in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the U.S. leases a naval base at Guantánamo Bay where they conduct fleet training, ship repair, refueling, disaster assistance, search and rescue, humanitarian aid, but also migrant and detention operations. In 2002, President George W. Bush established a military prison as the base to hold terrorism suspects and “illegal enemy combatants”. The base is notorious for its detention camp and past allegations of human rights abuses and torture.
Separate from the detention blocks used for “illegal enemy combatants”, the base also has a migrant detention facility which in the past has usually held a small number of Haitian and Cuban migrants detained at sea. However, on January 29 of this year, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Department of Defense and Homeland Security to expand the Migrant Operations Center in Guantánamo to detain “high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States”. In February, immigration detainees from Central and South American countries (including 177 Venezuelan nationals) were held in Guantánamo pending deportation to their home countries.
For a number of reasons, including the poor conditions of the facilities and legal challenges, the Trump administration was not able to realize its intended expansion of the Migrant Operation Center to hold large numbers of immigrant detainees. However, on July 1, CBS reported that the Trump administration had again begun to transfer criminal detainees to Guantánamo. Current detainees are from all over – Central and South America, Africa, Asia, South Asia, Europe (the U.K.), the Caribbean, and the Central Pacific.
The U.S. military base on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and other U.S. military bases in Micronesia are key to the United States’ geopolitical strength in the Pacific and essential for the U.S. to defend against threats from China and Korea. The Compact of Free Association does not explicitly protect COFA citizens with criminal convictions from deportation, and recent changes in immigration policy have targeted people anyone with past offenses, even people who are following their court dates and other legal processes, many working in essential services like food production and construction, greatly harming families and communities. Even for people with criminal records, such as this Marshallese man, they have been denied legal counsel, held in crowded and terrible conditions for months on end, and refused immigration hearings.
The RMI government is aware that this man is being detained in Guantánamo, and Marshallese Ambassador Charles Paul is advocating on his behalf. In the meantime, we continue to pray for this man and his family who are asking why is he being deported now after all these years. As a line worker at George’s, he worked throughout the pandemic, and we still remember that for two months straight a Marshallese person died every day. The country, and the president at the time, called them essential workers and hailed them as heroes. That same president today continues to round up people like Junior and insist that some missing paperwork or even a mistake like drunk driving is on par with terrorism. With all that the Marshall Islands has suffered because of the United States (yes, I mean nuclear testing), I feel this is a grievous betrayal of good faith in the Compact between our countries.
Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Island Journal, and RNZ correspondent, reported that Ambassador Paul is working to repatriate Junior and expediate the process. In a social media post, Benson Gideon, COFA advocate, called on the US embassy to publicly address the injustice and work with federal agencies to ensure COFA Marshallese residents are treated with dignity and fairness. That should include legal counsel, due process, and an immigration hearing. Gideon put it clearly: “If we are good enough to host your missile ranges, fight in your military, and support your defense strategy, then we are good enough to be protected – not punished. Let justice, transparency, and respect prevail.”
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ICE deportation action lands Marshallese, Micronesians in Guantanamo | RNZ News
