Rebecca Stewart, a a nurse in the US Public Health Service, last April she received a phone call that brought tears to her eyes. She was selected for deployment to the Trump administration’s novel immigration detention operation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This announcement brings together Donald Trump’s long-standing passion for using a naval base to get around “some bad guys” from the United States with a promise made shortly after it was made inauguration detain thousands of foreigners there. Naval base is known for torture AND inhumane treatment of men suspected of terrorism after 9/11.
“Deployments usually can’t be said no,” Stewart said. She contacted the coordinating office, which found another nurse to replace her.
Other public health officials who worked at Guantanamo last year described conditions for detainees there, with some of them first learning they were in Cuba from nurses and doctors sent to care for them. They treated immigrants held in a obscure prison called Camp 6, which is blocked from sunlight, said the officials, who were granted anonymity because they feared retaliation for speaking out publicly. Previously, people suspected of links to Al-Qaeda were detained there. The officers said they had not been informed in advance about the details of their potential duties at the base.
Although the Public Health Service is not a branch of the U.S. military, its uniformed officers – some 5,000 doctors, nurses and other health care workers – act like soldiers with a stethoscope in emergency situations. The government uses them during hurricanes, wildfires, mass shootings and measles outbreaks. In the meantime, they fill in the gaps in the alphabet soup of government agencies.
Trump administration mass arrests immigration restrictions have created a novel public health threat as the number of people in detention increases record growth. About 71,000 immigrants are currently in jail, most of whom have no criminal records, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said: “President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo will contain the worst of the worst.” However, several news organizations reported that many of the men sent to the base had no criminal records. As much as 90 percent of them were described as “low risk”. May progress account of a chaplain observing detainees.
According to the Trump administration, about 780 foreigners have been sent to Guantanamo on and off. New York Times. The numbers fluctuate as novel prisoners arrive and others return to the United States or are deported.
Although some public health officials have provided medical care to detained immigrants in the past, for the first time in American history, Guantanamo Bay was used to house immigrants who were living in the United States. Officers say ICE alerts are becoming more common. After bypassing Guantanamo, Stewart was instructed to report to an ICE detention facility in Texas.
“Public health officials are being asked to facilitate a man-made humanitarian crisis,” she said.
Seeing no way to refuse assignments to positions she deemed inappropriate, Stewart resigned after ten years of service. She would give up the prospect of a pension offered after 20 years.
“It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” she said. “It was my dream job.”
One of her PHS colleagues, nurse Dena Bushman, faced a similar moral dilemma when she received a notice to report to Guantanamo a few weeks after the shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August. Bushman, who was seconded to the CDC, obtained a medical leave delaying her deployment due to stress and grief. She considered quitting, and then she did.