Mired in operational and legal challenges, the president’s plan to send the “worst criminal illegal aliens” to Guantanamo Bay is unraveling. U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for military operations at the base, has started making plans to draw down from the roughly 1,000 military personnel deployed there in the coming weeks, a defense official said. The operation has so far cost at least $16 million, according to lawmakers who recently toured the naval base.

The defense official added that the administration is planning to repurpose 195 large tents, which are each lined with about a dozen or more cots, since they have sat unused for weeks. The small groups of migrants who were flown to the island on costly military aircraft and chartered civilian planes were moved only weeks later, two U.S. officials said, adding that no more flights were currently scheduled to carry migrants to the naval base.

The Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security have struggled to come to an agreement on the division of their responsibilities on the base, people familiar with the operations say, setting the stage for finger pointing as the administration struggles to fulfill Trump’s stated vision for Guantanamo.

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