Trump Administration eyes two NM military sites for immigrant detention – New York Times, KUNM News
The New York Times is reporting the Trump Administration is planning to detain people who are in the country without legal status at military sites across the United States, including Fort Bliss and Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
The Times did not identify its sources, noting they are three officials familiar with the plan. Fort Bliss, which straddles New Mexico and Texas, could eventually hold up to 10,000 people and serve as a deportation hub.
In previous administrations, bases served as emergency backups for migrant children when the government’s shelter system hit capacity. But the Times writes this plan would create a national network of detention facilities and marks a “major escalation in the militarization of immigration enforcement.”
The White House referred requests for comment about the plan to the Defense and Homeland Security Departments, which did not respond to those requests from the Times.
A former official with Customs and Border Protection told the Times military facilities are not designed for projects like this, and securing people requires a lot of labor and resources.
The Biden Administration temporarily housed thousands of migrant children and teenagers at Fort Bliss and an internal watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services found they suffered distress and panic attacks because there was a lack of resources and training by officials.
Santa Fe Superintendent resigns amid sexual harassment allegations - Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
Santa Fe Public Schools announced today that Superintendent Larry Chavez has resigned following sexual harassment allegations by a former assistant principal.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that while Chavez will continue to be paid out of his remaining vacation leave until the end of June, he’ll be immediately replaced by an interim superintendent. The school board announced former superintendent Veronica García will step back into the role.
Former Santa Fe High School assistant principal and current city councilor Amanda Chavez filed the sexual harassment and retaliation allegations with the district back in December. However, her attorneys announced them publicly earlier this week, saying the district informed her just days after her complaint that its officials were able to substantiate her allegations.
The board met for a special closed-door board meeting today, after which they announced Larry Chavez had filed his resignation yesterday. Board member Sarah Boses also said the board could not respond to the allegations or whether they had been substantiated.
The board authorized an ongoing internal investigation into the allegations to continue. A timeline released by the district today says the board first discussed the investigation in mid-December, about a week after the allegations were made.
Relief in sight for farmers worried about federal funding freeze - Alice Fordham, KUNM News
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to release a tranche of funding that was paused. Late Thursday, the new Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced in a statement that contracts made directly with farmers will be honored.
Specifically, the department is releasing about $20 million in contracts made under three programs designed to support conservation practices. Secretary Rollins said they had been paused as part of a review of funding under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Democratic U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández has said farmers across New Mexico have not received expected payments, or are worried they would not receive payments on time, amid a broad freeze in federal funding.
Secretary Rollins said in the statement that this is the first tranche of released funding and additional announcements are forthcoming. She added the department would ensure programs were not supporting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility or “far-left climate programs.”
Measles outbreaks rise to nearly 100 cases between Texas and New Mexico. Here's what you should know - By Devi Shastri, AP Health Writer
The measles outbreak in rural West Texas has grown to 90 cases across seven counties, the state health department posted online Friday, and 16 people are hospitalized.
In neighboring eastern New Mexico, the measles case count is up to nine, though state public health officials said Thursday there's still no evidence this outbreak is connected to the one in Texas.
Measles is a highly contagious disease. Here's what you should know about how to protect yourself against measles, as well as what's happening in Texas and New Mexico.
WHERE ARE MEASLES SPREADING?
The West Texas cases are concentrated in Gaines County, which has 57 infections, and Terry County, north of Gaines, where there are now 20 confirmed cases.
Dawson County, to the east of Gaines, was new to the count with six. Yoakum County has four and Lubbock, Lynn and Ector counties have a case each.
Texas state health department data shows the vast majority of cases are among people younger than 18: 26 in kids younger than 4 and 51 in kids 5-17 years old. Ten adults have measles and three cases are "pending" an age determination. The Ector County Health Department told the Odessa American its case was in a child too young to be vaccinated.
State health officials have said this outbreak is Texas' largest in nearly 30 years. Health department spokeswoman Lara Anton said last week that cases have been concentrated in a "close-knit, undervaccinated" Mennonite community — especially among families who attend small private religious schools or are homeschooled.
In New Mexico, all of the cases are in Lea County, which borders Gaines County in Texas. The state health department has said people may have been exposed at a grocery store, an elementary school, a church, Nor-Lea Hospital and a Walgreens in Hobbs, New Mexico.
WHAT IS MEASLES?
Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most kids will recover from the measles if they get it, but infection can lead to dangerous complications like pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
IS THE VACCINE SAFE?
Yes, the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is safe and highly effective in preventing measles infection and severe cases of the disease.
The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. The vaccine series is required for kids before entering kindergarten in public schools nationwide.
Before the vaccine was introduced in 1963, the U.S. saw some 3 million to 4 million cases per year. Now, it's usually fewer than 200 in a normal year.
There is no link between the vaccine and autism, despite a now-discredited study and health disinformation.
WHY DO VACCINATION RATES MATTER?
In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called "herd immunity."
But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.
The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60. Five years earlier, measles cases were the worst in almost three decades in 2019.
Gaines County has one of the highest rates in Texas of school-aged children who opt out of at least one required vaccine, with nearly 14% of K-12 children in the 2023-24 school year. Health officials say that number is likely higher because it doesn't include many children who are homeschooled and whose data would not be reported.
WHAT ARE PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS DOING TO STOP THE SPREAD?
Health workers are hosting regular vaccination clinic and screening efforts in Texas, as well as working with schools to educate people about the importance of vaccination and offering shots.
New Mexico health officials are also hosting several vaccination clinics in Hobbs next week.
Resolution to eliminate education cabinet secretary position advances - By Leah Romero, Source New Mexico
A proposal to amend the New Mexico Constitution and reconfigure public education governance passed the Senate Education Committee Friday and advances to the Senate Finance Committee.
Senate Joint Resolution 3, sponsored by Sen. Bill Soules (D-Las Cruces), chair of the Senate Education Committee, received a do-pass by a vote of 7-2 by committee members. The Senate Rules Committee previously advanced the bill without recommendation.
The resolution proposes amending the state Constitution to shift oversight of the Public Education Department from a governor-appointed cabinet secretary to a superintendent of public schools hired by a public schools board. If the resolution passes, it will be up to voters to decide during the next general election.
Soules pointed out to committee members Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration has had five public education cabinet secretaries thus far.
“Education needs consistent leadership at the top,” he said during the meeting.
The Senate Education Committee adopted an amendment to SJR 3 Friday, to make sure there is still a separate Public Education Commission in place to authorize charter schools in the state.
The state school board would be made up of 10 elected members and five appointed by the governor. They would determine department policies and appoint a superintendent.
The proposed structure is how governance was organized up until former Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration, when voters approved a constitutional amendment creating a cabinet-level position to lead the Public Education Department. Former Sen. Steven Neville (R-Aztec) and President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) introduced a similar resolution in 2023, which passed the Senate but died before a House vote.
Representatives from the New Mexico School Board Association, New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders, New Mexico School Superintendents, Albuquerque Teacher Federation and a current Public Education Commissioner all spoke in favor of the resolution.
“It’s very important that a superintendent go beyond three years in order to enact change within his district. It’s no different at the state level. Matter of fact, it’s very much more important,” Martin Madrid, president of the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, said during the meeting. “In my short tenure as the president since June, I’ve had to build a relationship with two separate secretaries.”
Members of NewMexicoKidsCAN, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Think New Mexico and Teach Plus New Mexico voiced their opposition to changing the governance of public education in the state as a way to address shortcomings in student performance.
“I worry it will include more chaos as we make all of these transitions,” Amanda Aragon, executive director of NewMexicoKidsCAN, said. “I think you need look no further than the local school board elections in your own districts to know that school board elections are becoming really, really political.”
Mariana Padilla, secretary designate of the Public Education Department, also voiced her opposition to the bill, noting that the time and resources it will take to restructure the department “would be much better spent on focusing on the educational initiatives and needs of our students and our educators.”
“There is no body of research that indicates that a state school board structure is a better governance structure,” Padilla told committee members.
Latest attempt to pay NM legislators a salary unlikely to be revived after tie vote - Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
The latest attempt to allow New Mexico voters to decide whether legislators should be paid a salary appears to be dead for this year’s 60-day session.
Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, the sponsor of the proposed constitutional amendment, said Thursday it was unlikely to be revived after stalling on a tie vote this week in the Senate Finance Committee.
“Unless the votes were to change in (that committee), I don’t think it’s a great use of time,” Duhigg told the Journal.
But she also said she believes the proposal would have enough votes to pass on the Senate floor, if it were to arrive there.
“There’s definitely an increased desire for this,” Duhigg said.
New Mexico is the only state that does not pay its legislators a salary, though lawmakers do receive a per diem payment while in session that’s intended to cover food and lodging expenses. That payment is currently set at $202 per day, but is set to jump to $247 per day in March.
In addition, lawmakers can opt into a legislative retirement plan that has been expanded in recent years.
However, a number of lawmakers have resigned in recent years for financial or familial reasons, with some saying the sacrifice required to serve in the Legislature was too great.
This year’s proposal, Senate Joint Resolution 1, would allow voters to decide whether the state should create a nine-member commission to determine an appropriate salary level for legislators.
If approved by voters, the legislative salaries would then take effect in July 2030.
Mason Graham, the policy director for Common Cause New Mexico, said the issue of paying legislators a salary has been discussed at the Roundhouse for more than a decade.
“We see this as a way to kind of close that financial gap, to make sure that folks who want to serve can,” Graham said.
He also said a similar proposal would be filed in the House of Representatives before Thursday’s bill-filing deadline in a last-ditch attempt to keep the issue alive during this year’s session.
But that proposal would also likely have to pass through the Senate Finance Committee, where the Senate proposal stalled.
Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said the idea of paying legislators a salary is not a partisan one, even though most New Mexico Republicans have opposed it in recent years.
Two Democrats — Sens. Pete Campos of Las Vegas and George Muñoz of Gallup — joined with Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee this week in casting “no” votes that ultimately blocked the proposal from advancing.
During the hearing, Muñoz said paying lawmakers a salary would not necessarily improve the quality of legislators.
“Now we’re going to have people running for a paycheck,” he said.
Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, R-Albuquerque, who also voted against the proposal, said the Legislature already has a diverse membership, citing the state’s first-ever female majority of lawmakers.
“We’re pretty diverse and we have pretty diverse backgrounds,” she said. “And we’re here in the spirit of what volunteerism is for every person in New Mexico.”
While the idea of paying New Mexico legislators a salary has struggled to win approval at the Roundhouse, lawmakers have adopted other changes intended to help “modernize” the Legislature.
That includes a vote last year allowing each legislator to hire a year-round aide. Previously, only lawmakers in top leadership positions had permanent staffers.
Oil Conservation Commission sets date for deliberations on oil and gas PFAS ban - Hannah Grover, New Mexico Political Report
The New Mexico Oil Conservation Commission plans to deliberate March 11 on a petition to ban the use of PFAS chemicals in down-hole oil and gas operations such as fracking.
The commission set the date during its Thursday meeting.
The panel heard arguments in the case during a week-long hearing in November 2024.
While oil and gas industry groups say PFAS chemicals are no longer used in oil and gas operations in New Mexico, advocacy groups led by WildEarth Guardians want to ensure that really is the case.
PFAS have gained increased attention in recent years as members of the public become more aware of the potential dangers surrounding those chemicals.
There are more than 10,000 types of PFAS chemicals.
A 2021 report produced by Physicians for Social Responsibility documented the use of PFAS chemicals in fracking operations in New Mexico.
WildEarth Guardians has also petitioned the Oil Conservation Commission to require increased disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking operations, some of which are considered trade secrets.
Crime package headed to New Mexico Senate - By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
After three hours of debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday night voted 7-1 in favor of House Bill 8, a package of six bills intended to reduce crime.
The House of Representatives already passed the omnibus legislation, leaving the package one Senate vote away from reaching Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk.
Committee members focused on House Bill 4, which would give prosecutors more options to involuntarily commit people into a locked psychiatric facility if they are deemed dangerous and unable to stand trial.
Supporters at Wednesday night’s committee included the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the Albuquerque Police Department, the Department of Public Safety, the New Mexico Nurses Association, the New Mexico Nurse Practitioner Council and Disability Rights New Mexico.
Jim Jackson, a former executive director of Disability Rights New Mexico, told the committee the organization supports “most” of the bill’s competency-related provisions, particularly the one establishing community-based competency restoration programs.
“This will spare people the trauma of being sent to the forensic unit at the state hospital in Las Vegas, and provide this kind of service on the local level,” Jackson said. “We don’t have that capacity yet, but if we can develop that, I think it will be really useful.”
Criticism of HB 4 remains, however, in part because there is no statewide competency restoration program in New Mexico.
For instance, nearly all of the mental health professionals who evaluate people for their abilities to stand trial oppose HB4, according to Dr. Bronwyn Neeser, a forensic psychologist and former competency evaluator contract manager for the state Behavioral Health Services Division.
According to Neeser, out of the 12 competency evaluation contractors working in New Mexico, 10 of them oppose HB 4, accounting for 25 of the 27 evaluators doing this work. She said they’re concerned about not being able to obtain records needed to complete the evaluations; a lack of legal immunity for evaluators in their decision making; lack of additional compensation for the bigger workload; and the potential for competency evaluations to become unsealed.
Neeser said she’s handed amendments about competency evaluators to Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos) and the other HB 4 sponsors but as of Wednesday, “none of those concerns have been addressed.”
“To me, this is a blatant disregard for the professionals who will be adding a tremendous burden to their already cumbersome evaluation process,” she told the committee. “If any legislator had bothered to reach out to the contract evaluators, they would have understood the number of evaluators with concerns.”
Later in the hearing, Sen. Anthony Thornton (R-Sandia Park) asked Chandler if she has worked with the evaluators to see whether they’ll be able to handle the increased workload. Chandler said she spoke with an unnamed University of New Mexico representative about the need for more forensic psychologists. She didn’t mention any conversations with evaluators.
“We are investing in expanding our behavioral health system. The Senate has been showing leadership on that in coordination with the House,” Chandler said. “It is our expectation that the investments that we’re making on the behavioral health side will also be investments on needs of the courts and other evaluation systems, so if there is a gap — and I wouldn’t dispute there may be a gap — the intent is to expand on services.”
Thornton noted that Neeser, who was sitting in the audience, was shaking her head, and asked Neeser to comment on any concerns. Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) stopped him and said, “We don’t do that.”
“We don’t go back to the audience,” Cervantes said. “I assure you that it’s a good practice not to do that, because you’ll be here for weeks.”
Opponents also included the New Mexico Business Coalition, on the grounds that it is not tough enough on crime, and the Public Safety Coalition, because it focuses on new crimes, increased criminal punishment and forced hospitalization.
Keller vows to kill funding shift from the Rail Trail to Westside sports complex - By Elizabeth McCall, City Desk ABQ
Mayor Tim Keller said he would veto the City Council’s decision to move funding from a high-profile, multi-use trail project to a planned sports complex project on the Westside after a group of Albuquerque residents pleaded with city councilors Wednesday night to reconsider.
The City Council approved the move during their Feb. 3 meeting. Councilors voted to transfer $500,000 from the ongoing Rail Trail project — a 7-mile multi-use trail that will connect the city’s historic destinations — to the planned Ken Sanchez Indoor Sports Complex.
“I hope you continue to have an open mind and consider options to backtrack that decision,” Albuquerque resident Andrew Keleher told city councilors Wednesday night. “I attended, taught at and continue to coach youth sports at St. Pius, so I am very much in favor of the Westside youth sports complex. However, the way in which this funding was secured, I believe, sets a very troubling precedent of councilors looking to other projects, other districts, to secure funding.”
Keller issued a statement after the meeting saying he would veto the bill in light of the public outcry.
“We stand with the community who are urging the City Council to restore funding to the Rail Trail, a project that’s already under construction and will be a transformative addition for the entire city,” Keller said in a statement. “I’m ready to line-item veto this unfortunate decision and work with the City Council to reinstate the funding for the Rail Trail.”
Deputy Director of Council Services Mark Motsko during Wednesday’s meeting said the funding came from a gross receipts tax bond and that the council “moved some interest within a GRT bond, so we bonded against our gross receipts tax income.” He also confirmed that no state funding was moved within that clean-up bill.
“We moved a half a million from the Rail Trail to Ken Sanchez Indoor Sports Complex,” Motsko said. “Then, because these are bonds and we do earn interest on those bonds, staff found that there was about $600,000 in interest that we were able to take another half million and put it into Ken Sanchez that way. Ken Sanchez Indoor Sports Complex is fully funded, and the Rail Trail, which is a multi-phased, multi-year project, is also funded for several phases.”
Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn was the only councilor to vote against the effort and said it is a “dangerous precedent to start taking funds from fellow councilors’ projects,” and she hopes to not see it again. Fiebelkorn asked Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel if she agreed that the projects are fully funded.
Sengel said the Keller administration disagrees that the council’s decision fully funds the Rail Trail project.
“We had $1.5 million for the Rail Trail from the GRT tax interest specifically because we have that project underway and we are continuing to fund that project,” Sengel said. “Removing the $500,000 from that and moving it to the Westside sports complex does reduce the current available funds for the Rail Trail.”
Councilor Dan Lewis said it’s normal to shift funding around and it’s how the council “gets multiple projects done.”
“We do this all the time,” Lewis said. “Mr. Motsko just explained exactly how both of these projects are fully funded. So whether the administration agrees with that or not, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s fully funded…I wouldn’t have voted on that if I didn’t know that these projects would be fully funded as well. I think it’s a great example of councilors working together to get projects done for the people of the city.”
Former councilor Ken Sanchez, who died in 2020 while still in office, initially presented the idea of the sports complex and Councilor Louie Sanchez continued the plan after he was elected.
“I support the rail trail 100% and I know everybody else does as well, but we’re looking at a $100 million project over many, many, many years,” Louie Sanchez said. “It’s less than 0.5%, so less than half a percentage point is going to actually get another facility built and running.”
The sports complex is planned to go between Coors Boulevard and Atrisco Drive NW, south of St. Josephs Drive NW and is expected to include basketball and volleyball courts to host tournaments and other events.
Nearly 200 Venezuelan migrants are flown home from Guantanamo Bay, with a layover in Honduras - By Morgan Lee and Regina Garcia Cano, Associated Press
Nearly 200 Venezuelan immigrants to the U.S. were returned to their home country after being detained at Guantanamo Bay, in a flurry of flights that forged an unprecedented pathway for U.S. deportations.
U.S. and Venezuelan authorities confirmed the deportations that relied on a stopover in Honduras, where 177 Venezuelans exited a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement flight and boarded a Venezuelan plane bound for Caracas.
The government of President Nicolás Maduro said it had "requested the repatriation of a group" of Venezuelans "who were unjustly taken" to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. With the request accepted, an aircraft with the state-owned airline Conviasa picked up the migrants from Honduras. ICE confirmed the transfer of 177 "Venezuelan illegal aliens."
The administration of President Donald Trump has placed a high priority on deporting people who have exhausted all legal appeals to stay in the U.S. Nearly 1.5 million had final removal orders as of Nov. 24, according to ICE figures, including more than 22,000 Venezuelans.
In a court filing Thursday, federal immigration and military authorities said that "Venezuela has historically resisted accepting repatriation of its citizens but has recently begun accepting removals following high-level political discussions and an investment of significant resources."
Last week, two Venezuelan flights carried 190 immigrants directly from the U.S. to Venezuela in a rare moment of coordination between the two countries that may be giving way to regular exchanges.
Thursday's court filing by U.S. Justice Department attorneys provides the most thorough official accounting to date about who is being held at the isolated Guantanamo Bay military complex and why — noting that detainees as of Wednesday were Venezuelans with final orders of deportation.
More immigrant transfer flights arrived at Guantanamo Bay on Thursday in planes departing from Texas and Louisiana, said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks deportation flights.
Trump in January said he wanted to expand immigrant detention facilities at Guantanamo to hold as many as 30,000 people, although the current capacity at Guantanamo's low-security migrant operations center is roughly 2,500.
The naval base is best known for housing suspects taken in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but it also has been used for holding people caught trying to illegally reach the U.S. by boat and to coordinate the resettlement of immigrants in the U.S.
Authorities initiated on Feb. 4 near-daily flights from a U.S. Army base in West Texas to Guantanamo. By Wednesday, 51 of the newly arrived immigrants were being held in low-security tent facilities, while 127 more were confined to a high-security area. The tally in detention after Thursday's transfer flights.
The departments of Homeland Security and Defense are defending their ability to move immigrants in and out of Guantanamo Bay with little or no notice to the public and legal representatives.
They argued in Thursday's court filing that the recent detainees at Guantanamo do not have a right to legal counsel because they all are subject to final orders of removal to Venezuela, affording them "very limited due process rights."
Relatives of the new Guantanamo detainees and advocacy groups have accused the U.S. government of holding immigrants without access to counsel or any means of vindicating their rights, amid unsubstantiated or disputed accusations of criminal ties. They say immigrants with final removal orders should still be able to challenge conditions of confinement and possible mistreatment in detention and seek release in the U.S. if efforts to deport them drag on too long.
U.S. authorities have not publicly confirmed the individual identities of immigrants recently held at Guantanamo Bay.
A lawsuit on behalf of three immigrants detained at Guantanamo seeks a court order for authorities to provide unmonitored telephone and in-person access to legal counsel for people held at Guantanamo, as well as advance notice before immigrants are transferred to Guantanamo or removed to other countries.
A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has directed authorities to provide phone access to legal counsel, and authorities at Guantanamo said in Thursday's court filing that they have complied, while pushing back against other demands including communication between detainees and relatives.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Defense "are not presently offering the opportunity for in-person visits to immigration detainees at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay but will continue to evaluate whether to extend this option in light of significant logistical challenges, the availability of alternative means of counsel communication, and the anticipated short duration of immigration detainee stays."
Attorney Lee Gelernt of the ACLU — among the plaintiffs challenging detention practices at Guantanamo — said Thursday's deportations were conducted with a troubling lack of transparency.
Trump earlier, in January, signaled that some migrants could be held indefinitely at Guantanamo.
"Some of them are so bad that we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're gonna send 'em out to Guantanamo," Trump said.
The U.S. government has alleged that Venezuelan immigrants transferred to the naval base are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in a prison in the South American country and accompanied an exodus of Venezuelans as far as Chile and the U.S. Trump and his allies have turned the gang into the face of the alleged threat posed by immigrants living in the country illegally and formally designated it a "foreign terrorist organization" this week.
Maduro's government said Thursday that the country "will always fight terrorism and criminal organizations of any kind, while denouncing the manipulation of these elements for political ends and rejecting any attempt to criminalize the nation and its citizens."
Authorities in several countries have reported arrests of Tren de Aragua members, even as the Maduro government claims to have eliminated that organization.
Relatives of immigrants recently taken to Guantanamo Bay and civil rights advocates say they have been left guessing about exactly who has been transferred there, as they stitch together reports by immigrants in detention about people being led away from holding cells at an ICE processing center in El Paso, Texas. An online detainee locator is of limited use, they say.