Public health workers resign over their assignments at Guantanamo

Rebecca Stewart, A A nurse with the US Public Health Service received a call last April that made her cry. She has been selected for deployment to the Trump administration’s new immigration detention operation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This post combines Donald Trump’s long-time passion for using the overseas base to move “some bad guys” out of the United States with a promise he made shortly after his inauguration to detain thousands of non-citizens there. The naval base is notorious for the torture and inhumane treatment of men suspected of involvement in terrorism following the events of September 11.

“Deployments aren’t usually something you can say no to,” Stewart said. She begged the coordination office, which found another nurse to replace her.

Other public health personnel who worked at Guantanamo last year described conditions there to detainees, some of whom first learned of their presence in Cuba from nurses and doctors sent to care for them. The officers, who granted anonymity because they feared retaliation for speaking out, said they processed migrants held in a dark prison called Camp 6, where no sunlight enters. It has previously detained people suspected of links to Al-Qaeda. The officers said they were not informed in advance of the details of their potential duties at the base.

Although the Public Health Service is not a branch of the US armed forces, its uniformed officers – nearly 5,000 doctors, nurses and other health workers – act like soldiers wearing stethoscopes in emergency situations. The government spreads them during hurricanes, wildfires, mass shootings and measles outbreaks. In the meantime, they fill in the gaps in an alphabet soup of government agencies.

The Trump administration’s mass detentions to curb immigration have created a new kind of health emergency with the number of people in detention reaching record levels. There are currently about 71,000 immigrants incarcerated, according to ICE data, which shows most have no criminal record.

“President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will contain the worst of the worst,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. However, several news organizations reported that many of the men shipped to the base did not have any criminal convictions. As many as 90 percent of them were described as “low risk” in a May progress report from a chaplain who monitors detainees.

Intermittently, the Trump administration has sent about 780 noncitizens to Guantanamo Bay, according to the New York Times. The numbers fluctuate as new detainees arrive and others are returned to the United States or deported.

Although some Public Health Service officials have provided medical care to detained immigrants in the past, this is the first time in American history that Guantanamo has been used to house immigrants who were living in the United States. Officers said ICE fliers are becoming more common. After eluding Guantanamo, Stewart was ordered to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Texas.

“Public health officials are being asked to facilitate a man-made humanitarian crisis,” she said.

Because there was no option to decline postings she found objectionable, Stewart resigned after a decade of service. You will give up the possibility of a pension after 20 years.

“It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” she said. “It was my dream job.”

One of her colleagues in Public Health Services, nurse Dina Bushman, faced a similar ethical dilemma when she received notice to go to Guantanamo just weeks after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shooting in August. Bushman, who was assigned to the CDC, received a medical waiver, which delayed her deployment due to stress and grief. I thought about quitting, and then I did.