White House — U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday his intention to sign an executive action directing his administration to prepare for the detention of undocumented migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This facility is primarily known for housing military prisoners and terror suspects, including individuals involved in the 9/11 attacks and members of the Taliban.
Trump stated that his order would instruct the Defense and Homeland Security departments to prepare the U.S. naval base for the potential housing of 30,000 migrants. He remarked, “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back. So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately. And tough, it’s a tough place to get out of.”
This announcement was made during a White House event where Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law, marking the first legislation of his second term. The bill, named after a 22-year-old nursing student murdered last year by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant, aims to expand the federal government’s authority to detain immigrants illegally present in the country.
Details on how the administration plans to execute this directive remain unclear. When asked by reporters, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned that the White House was “working on using resources that we currently have there at Guantanamo Bay.” She indicated that the administration was collaborating with lawmakers to secure funding, although no cost estimates were provided.
A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, informed VOA that Trump had signed a presidential memorandum regarding the housing of migrants at Guantanamo. Unlike executive orders, presidential memoranda do not need to be published in the Federal Register, making them less formal.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, emphasized that U.S. Coast Guard personnel currently intercepting illegal migrants at sea could transport them directly to Guantanamo Bay. He noted that migrants have been housed there in the past, stating, “So we’re just going to expand upon the existing migrant center logistics to work for that.”
According to a September 2024 report from the International Refugee Assistance Project, the U.S. has a long history of detaining migrants intercepted at sea in the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay under conditions resembling a prison. Immigration rights advocates, including IRAP, have called for the immediate closure of the migrant center and urged Congress to investigate alleged human rights abuses at the facility.
Later that day, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described Guantanamo Bay as the “perfect place” for criminal migrants, explaining that it could also temporarily hold other undocumented immigrants awaiting repatriation. He stated, “It’s folks who maybe are in transit to their home country or a safe harbor country, and it’s taking a little time to move with that processing of the paperwork. Better they be held at a safe location, like Guantanamo Bay, which is meant and built for migrants, meant and built to sustain that away from the American people.”
Recent media reports indicate that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) averaged 710 arrests per day from Thursday through Monday, significantly higher than the previous daily average of 311 recorded during the 12-month period ending September under President Joe Biden. If this trend continues, it could surpass the record set during President Barack Obama’s administration in 2013, when daily arrests averaged 636.
The Trump administration’s approach has intensified deportations, with ICE regularly updating arrest figures. These swift removals have occasionally posed challenges regarding the appropriate destinations for deportees, particularly when specific countries refuse to accept them.
Efforts to close Guantanamo have been made by Democratic administrations under Obama and Biden, as the detention camp was established by the George W. Bush administration in 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Rights groups contend that Guantanamo symbolizes U.S. disregard for the rule of law, as many detainees have been held without charge or trial. Sue Hendrickson, president and CEO of Human Rights First, criticized the plan to send migrants to Guantanamo, stating, “Housing accused terrorists at Guantanamo has been a debacle. For the past 20 years, the U.S. government has locked up people it never even accused of taking action against the United States while continually failing to try those credibly charged with serious crimes.” She added, “The Trump administration may find the symbolism of sending migrants to Guantanamo darkly appealing; its practical result would be more injustice, waste and self-inflicted loss of credibility.”
During its peak, the Guantanamo detention facility held around 680 prisoners. As of January 6, the Pentagon reported only 15 detainees remained at the facility. Prior to its current use, the naval base also housed migrants from Cuba and Haiti in the early 1990s, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. A CRS report dated August 2022 noted that the migrant population at the naval station reached nearly 45,000 in late 1994, with the last migrants leaving by the end of January 1996.
