Deep Search: USPHS Officers Resign Over New Guantánamo Immigration Mission
Public health officers within the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) are resigning in protest over mandatory deployments to a new immigration detention operation at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. While the naval base is historically synonymous with the detention of terrorism suspects, the Trump administration has repurposed facilities on the island—specifically the high-security “Camp 6″—to house noncitizens and asylum seekers.
Rebekah Stewart, a nurse practitioner who served for a decade, is among those who have left the service rather than deploy. “Public health officers are being asked to facilitate a man-made humanitarian crisis,” Stewart stated, noting that she was selected for the assignment without an option to refuse. Other officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a chaotic mobilization where medical staff were deployed without clear briefings on their duties or the standard operating procedures for the facility.
Reports from inside the base indicate a stark divide in conditions. While some detainees are housed in low-security barracks, others have been placed in Camp 6, a facility designed for maximum-security combatants where sunlight does not penetrate the cells. Medical staff have raised alarms about the psychological toll on detainees held in these windowless environments, with one officer describing the operation as facilitating a “dark prison” for individuals whose primary offense is an immigration violation.
Objections: Duty to Serve vs. Moral Distress
Critics of the resignations argue that USPHS officers are uniformed service members who, like their military counterparts, have a binding obligation to deploy where the government deems necessary. “Deployments are typically not something you can say no to,” one officer acknowledged, highlighting that the service’s commissioned corps is designed to respond to national emergencies, regardless of personal political views.
Furthermore, not all accounts from the ground describe a system in collapse. Some deployed officers have reported that, unlike the chronically overcrowded ICE detention centers on the U.S. mainland, the Guantánamo facility is currently under-capacity. “I have never been so not busy at work,” one medical professional admitted, contradicting the narrative of an overwhelmed medical system.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense have largely remained silent on specific allegations of poor conditions, maintaining that all operations comply with U.S. law. Supporters of the mission contend that the use of Guantánamo provides a secure, controlled environment for processing migrants that relieves pressure on border communities, and that medical staff are there to ensure standards of care are met, not to critique policy.
Background Info: From “War on Terror” to Immigration Detention
The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is one of the nation’s eight uniformed services, historically deployed for public health emergencies such as hurricanes, the Ebola outbreak, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Their utilization for immigration enforcement at a military black site represents a significant shift in their traditional humanitarian mission.
Camp 6, where some migrants are reportedly being held, was built to house “high-value” detainees with suspected links to Al-Qaeda. The facility’s infrastructure—steel doors, solitary confinement capabilities, and lack of natural light—was engineered for counter-terrorism purposes, not civil immigration detention.
This is not the first time medical ethics have clashed with operations at Guantánamo. In 2014, a Navy nurse famously refused to force-feed hunger-striking prisoners, sparking a years-long legal and ethical battle regarding the role of medical providers in military detention. The current wave of resignations suggests that the base remains a flashpoint for medical professionals who feel their ethical oath to “do no harm” is incompatible with their operational orders.
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