Bay Area Democrats Decry Trump Administration’s ‘Outrageous’ Plan to Use Military Base for Immigration Detention

Two Bay Area Democratic members of Congress are demanding answers from U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth about a proposal, first reported by KQED, to place an immigration detention facility on Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield.

Rep. John Garamendi, whose district includes the base, said Travis is a key staging site from which U.S. military aid is flown to Ukraine and other parts of the world, a mission he said would be harmed if part of the base is turned over to the Department of Homeland Security.

“It is outrageous and it is inappropriate for the administration to use Travis Air Force Base as an immigration detention facility,” he told KQED. “There are dozens of flights that leave Travis every day, moving equipment, personnel and munitions around the world. It is an absolutely critical base.”

Garamendi was joined by Rep. Mike Thompson, whose district flanks the base on three sides, in sending a letter to Hegseth on Monday saying they are “deeply frustrated and gravely concerned” by reports of the proposed use.

Among the questions they posed in the letter, Garamendi and Thompson asked:

• How diverting space and resources for a detention center would impact Travis’s operations;
• Whether military funds and personnel would be deployed for detention operations;
• How the Department of Defense would ensure military personnel would not perform law enforcement activities.

Garamendi has expressed particular alarm in recent months that the Trump administration could be violating the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th-century law that restricts federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement.

“Assigning resources toward immigration enforcement risks blurring this crucial distinction and setting a concerning precedent for the use of military installations for purposes beyond their intended scope,” Garamendi and Thompson wrote in the letter.

The Department of Defense declined to respond to KQED’s request for comment on the letter, saying it would only reply to the authors.

The Congressmembers’ letter follows reporting based on a series of internal government emails obtained by KQED that show Defense and Homeland Security officials coordinating to evaluate several military installations, including Travis Air Force Base, for immigration detention and removal operations.

In February, NPR reported on an internal Homeland Security memo that described a plan to set up an immigration detention facility at Fort Bliss, near El Paso, Texas, and use it as a model for future sites on as many as 10 other military bases.

In March, Garamendi and eight other Democratic members of Congress wrote to Hegseth and President Donald Trump with “staunch objection to plans to use our nation’s military installations as migrant detention centers.” A Defense official replied that Hegseth had already approved the Fort Bliss plan and said the department was actively coordinating with Homeland Security on other immigration enforcement efforts.

“In support of DHS activities, DoD maintains strict oversight to ensure that such support does not degrade overall military readiness, operational availability, or the military’s ability to respond to global contingencies,” wrote Mark Roosevelt Ditlevson, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs.

The budget reconciliation bill, recently passed out of the House Armed Services Committee with unanimous Republican support, includes language explicitly authorizing the use of military resources for immigration purposes, according to Garamendi, who is a senior member of the committee.

Since the start of the year, Garamendi has repeatedly criticized other moves by the Trump administration to divert military resources from Travis and elsewhere to immigration enforcement.

In January, Garamendi wrote to the Department of Defense challenging the use of military aircraft from Travis Air Force Base for deportation flights. And in February, Garamendi sent a letter raising concerns over a plan to deploy medical personnel from Travis Air Force Base’s David Grant Medical Center to the naval base at Guantanamo Bay for an immigration detention center there.

The flights appear to have been halted, at least temporarily. As to Guantanamo, the military has drastically scaled back the planned detention operation there. And in a reply to Garamendi last month, Defense officials denied that medical personnel would be sent there from Travis.

Meanwhile, the Congress members were not letting up on their scrutiny or their criticism.

“We are deeply alarmed by Trump’s blatant abuse of presidential power and his indifference to the rule of law,” Garamendi and Thompson said in a statement on Wednesday. “We will continue Congress’s oversight role and work to ensure the American people understand the unlawful, wasteful, and dangerous path Trump is pursuing.”