Military planners are considering housing Haitian refugees at "Camp Justice," the guest quarters for media, U.S. officials and military commissioners at Guantanamo Bay detention facility, after a devastating earthquake in Haiti Tuesday afternoon left thousands homeless.
In this May file photo, a detainee walks inside the open-air yard at Camp 4 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba.
(Reuters Photo)
Military planners are considering housing Haitian refugees at "Camp Justice," the guest quarters for media, U.S. officials and military commissioners at Guantanamo Bay detention facility, after a devastating earthquake in Haiti Tuesday afternoon left thousands homeless.
"It's a resource that's available if we need to take advantage of it for various reasons," Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command, told reporters Wednesday. "We're looking across the region to just understand what the possibilities are there."
Two senior Defense Department officials told Fox News on Wednesday that no final determination has been made since the military is still in its "assessment" mode, but it is a possibility.
"We are certainly keeping that option open," one official said.
A Coast Guard spokesman said four Americans from the U.S. embassy in Haiti have already been brought to Gitmo, which is about 180 miles away, the closest U.S. base to Port -au-Prince
"They required medical evacuation. We were able to get a helicopter in there, and they were medically evacuated from the embassy to Gitmo," the spokesman said.
State Department Counsel Cheryl Mills said eight of the 172 U.S. embassy personnel in Haiti were injured in the 7.0-magnitude quake, and the State Department has ordered the departure of approximately 80 embassy spouses, children, non-essential personnel.
Hedi Annabi, head of the U.N. Mission in Haiti, died in the quake, Haitian President Rene Preval confirmed.
The security situation in Haiti could rapidly deteriorate with thousands of homeless without power, electricity, water. Fears are mounting that tens of thousands could try to flee the country, as happened when Haitians faced alternatively oppression and poverty throughout the 1970s, '80s and early '90s. In the early 1990s, thousands of Haitians interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard were sent to Guantanamo before being repatriated home.
Homeland Security officials said the U.S. will halt for now the deportation of Haitians who are living in the United States illegally. Those who were to be deported to Haiti will remain in U.S. detention centers.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., called on President Obama to grant temporary protected status for Haitians who fled to America because of past violence and disaster.
"Many of these families have experienced far too much anguish already," she said in a letter to Obama Wednesday. "It is for that reason I am renewing my call to President Obama to grant these families temporary protected status so they do not have to lie in fear of having to immediately return to a country ravaged with devastation.
The main prison in Haiti collapsed in the earthquake. The U.N. has received reports of escaped inmates, a U.N. humanitarian spokeswoman said.
Fraser said he wasn't sure yet if U.S. troops might be needed to provide a peackeeping force. But he added that the U.N.'s security force, United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), has done a "significant job in sustaining and maintaining stability and security within the country."
"So we will work with MINUSTAH and get assessments and figure out what the security situation is and then decide what to do from there," he said.
Fraser said that he is sending various small ships into the region to provide immediate assistance on the ground and at the same time trying to determine how to support the efforts of international relief agencies.
The Guantanamo Bay prison has been at the center of a debate on U.S. national security as the administration struggles to find homes for the remaining terror suspects so it can close the facility. Critics of the plan say the facility should stay open and oppose the transfer of detainees to the U.S. or unstable countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Military officials at the base have said in recent months that even if the detention facility closes, Camp Justice might remain open so that refugees from the Caribbean could be housed there, when necessary.
The deliberation on Haitian refugees comes as the U.S. rushes emergency aid to the country. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are leading the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to provide emergency relief.
"I am being kept closely apprised of the developing situation, and the department will continue to support the people of Haiti and others affected by this tragedy," Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano said, urging Americans to donate what they can to disaster relief groups such as the American Red Cross.
The Coast Guard arrived in Port-au-Prince Wednesday morning -- the first U.S. asset on the scene -- equipped with a helicopter flight deck, satellite communications equipment and the ability to provide coordination to military aircraft in the area," a Homeland Security official said in an e-mail.
Two Coast Guard C-130 airplanes are flew the coast of Western Haiti Wednesday morning to assess the damage and search for people in need of assistance, the DHS official said, adding that two Coast Guard helicopters are also in the area to provide rescue or other assistance.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Southern Command plans to deploy a team of 30 people to Haiti to support U.S. relief efforts.
The team, which includes U.S. military engineers, operational planners, and a command and control group and communication specialists, will arrive in Haiti Wednesday on two C-130 Hercules aircraft.
The team will work with U.S. Embassy staffers as well as Haitian, United Nations and international officials to assess the situation.
Fraser said a medical ship can "give us a very significant medical capability on the ground."
Fox News' Justin Fishel, Mike Levine and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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