Trump Announces US. Will Send Some Migrants to Guantanamo Bay
US President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of a migrant detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, which he says will hold up to 30,000 people.
He stated that the facility at the US Navy base in Cuba, which would be separate from its high-security military prison, would imprison "the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people".
Some human rights organizations have criticized the long-standing practice of housing immigrants at Guantanamo Bay.
Later on Wednesday, Trump's "border tsar", Tom Homan, announced that the existing facility there would be expanded and administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He stated that the migrants might be moved there immediately after being apprehended at sea by the US Coast Guard and that the "highest" confinement standards would be followed.
It is uncertain how much the facility will cost and when it will be completed.
The Cuban government quickly blasted the idea, accusing the United States of torture and illegal confinement on "occupied" territory.
Trump's declaration came as he signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires unauthorized immigrants caught for theft or violent offences to be detained pending trial.
The law, named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan migrant last year, was passed by Congress last week, giving the administration an early legislative victory.
At a signing ceremony in the White House's East Room, Trump announced that the new Guantanamo executive order would direct the Defence and Homeland Security departments to "begin preparing" the 30,000-bed prison.
"Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back," he said about asylum seekers. "So we're going to send them to Guantanamo... it's a tough place to get out."
According to Trump, the facility will increase the US capacity to house undocumented migrants.
The US has been operating a facility in Guantanamo, known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (GMOC), for decades and under numerous Republican and Democratic governments.
In a 2024 report, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) accused the government of secretly holding refugees in "inhumane" circumstances long after they were detained at sea.
The GMOC has primarily kept migrants hauled up at sea, and the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a Freedom of Information request for documents about the facility.
The Biden administration answered that it "is not a detention facility, and none of the migrants there are detained".
However, the Trump administration claims that the projected expanded facility is primarily designed to serve as a detention centre.
It will allegedly urge Congress to fund the expansion of the current detention facility as part of a funding plan that Republicans are attempting to put together.
When pressed by reporters at the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the funds would be allocated through "reconciliation and appropriations."
For decades, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay has housed detainees apprehended by the United States following the 9/11 attacks.
At its peak, it housed hundreds of prisoners, and several Democratic presidents, including Barack Obama, have pledged to close it. There are now 15 convicts being kept there.
The Cuban government immediately condemned the facility's expansion, which has long regarded Guantanamo Bay to be "occupied" and has criticized the presence of a US naval base on the island since Fidel Castro took control in 1959.
"In an act of brutality, the new government of the US has announced it will incarcerate, at the naval base at Guantanamo, located in illegally occupied Cuban territory, thousands of forcibly expulsed migrants, who will be located near known prisons of torture and illegal detention," the Cuban president wrote on X.
Bruno Rodriguez, Cuba's Foreign Minister, stated that the decision demonstrated "contempt for the human condition and international law".