U.S. Representatives John Garamendi and Mike Thompson escalated their opposition to the Trump Administration’s reported plan to position an immigration detention facility at Travis Air Drive Base, sending a joint letter to Protection Secretary Pete Hesgeth in agency protest.
“It’s outrageous and inappropriate for the Trump Administration to use Travis Air Force Base as an immigration detention facility,” the joint letter reads. “Converting Travis into an immigration facility would undermine its vital national security mission. Travis Air Force Base has long been known as the ‘Gateway to the Pacific’ because it plays a crucial role in our national security by providing transportation for personnel and materiel around the world, particularly in support to Ukraine.”
The representatives wrote that they perceive Congress’s oversight function over the manager department and famous the choice’s “blatant disregard” for the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using energetic obligation navy forces for home regulation enforcement.
“We are deeply alarmed by Trump’s blatant abuse of presidential power and his indifference to the rule of law,” the letter provides.
The representatives, significantly Garamendi, have demanded solutions from the administration for months on this challenge. In January, Garamendi despatched a letter to Hesgeth with six direct questions concerning using C-17s and C-130s for deportations. In February, he requested eight questions and protested the choice to ship medical personnel from the bottom to Guantanamo Bay, which was later halted. Garamendi argued that folks held on the Guantanamo Bay facility deserve healthcare, however that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Well being Service Corps needs to be liable for offering that care relatively than navy personnel.
A bunch of immigrants is marched to a ready C-17 from Travis Air Drive Base on this imaged shared on social media by White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt . (COURTESY)
“In February, we uncovered that Trump was using Travis’s military aircraft to transport undocumented individuals at three times the cost of commercial flights,” the letter reads. “Later that month, we were able to stop his attempt to send trained medical personnel to the proposed migrant detention camp in Guantanamo Bay. Now, the President wants to turn Travis into a mass deportation center. All these instances compromise our national security and are simply absurd.”
Within the January letter, Garamendi requested which assets had been being diverted to the boarder, below which authority these assets had been being diverted, the funding and length of the diversion, why the U.S. Division of Protection didn’t use industrial flights as a substitute of the navy plane, and what steps had been being taken to take care of compliance with the Posse Comitatus Act.
“The Department of Defense recently responded to that inquiry,” a launch from Garamendi’s workplace reads, “but Rep. Garamendi’s office found the response inadequate.”
In line with the Nationwide Public Radio reviews, Homeland Safety officers have been contemplating not less than 10 navy bases across the nation for immigration detention. A February Homeland Safety memo obtained by NPR described a plan to make use of Fort Bliss, close to El Paso, Texas, as a mannequin for different amenities, with as much as 1,000 individuals initially detained there, ultimately increasing to as many as 10,000.
Earlier administrations have used navy bases to quickly home arriving refugees and have deployed troopers to supply logistical help to the U.S. Border Patrol. However any plan to make use of Travis and different navy amenities for ICE detention would characterize a extra substantial transfer towards militarizing immigration enforcement.
Along with humanitarian issues and worries in regards to the legality of the motion, the joint letter expressed concern that immigration associated actions will distract the bottom from its essential mission to nationwide safety.
“While the federal government must address immigration challenges with humane and practical solutions, utilizing a military installation for civilian law enforcement and detention operations raises significant concerns about the misuse of military resources, operational readiness, and national security,” the letter reads. “The decision to use Travis AFB as a migrant detention center would both constitute a dangerous militarization of immigration enforcement and unnecessarily degrade military readiness.”
Reporter Neighborhood Editor Robin Miller contributed to this report.
Initially Printed: Might 9, 2025 at 5:51 AM PDT
