Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem refused to rule out detaining shoplifters at Guantanamo Bay with other migrants.
During a Sunday interview on CNN, host Dana Bash asked Noem about the possibility of detaining people who committed low-level crimes at the offshore detention center.
“The Laken Riley Act requires you at the DHS to detain individuals who have been charged with but not convicted of nonviolent crimes like theft or shoplifting,” Bash noted. “You talked about ICE facilities that comes and goes, but at some point, they’re likely to be at capacity. So could those people end up at Guantanamo?”
“You know, I don’t know what the president will decide as far as utilizing it,” the DHS secretary admitted. “We want to have the capacity… He’s going to decide exactly which individuals.”
“We will have some facilities that will be up to the same standards as other detention facilities in the United States,” she added. “And I don’t think the president’s going to tie his hands on what he needs to do to make sure that America is safe.”
