U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will order the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay for as many as 30,000 migrants.
The U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already houses a migrant facility - separate from the high-security U.S. prison for foreign terrorism suspects - that has been used on occasion for decades, including to house Haitians and Cubans picked up at sea.
But a move to house tens of thousands of migrants at the base would again widen the Pentagon's role in Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
"Today I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay," Trump said at the White House.
He said the facility would be used to "detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. 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, right? And, tough."
The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay was set up in 2002 by then-U.S. President George W Bush to detain foreign militant suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. There are 15 detainees left in the prison.
But the facility for migrants is separate from the detention center on the base.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military said that it would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado.
The decision comes on top of U.S. military deportation flights of migrants out of the country and the deployment of just over 1,600 active-duty troops to the U.S. border with Mexico following Trump's emergency declaration on immigration last week.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
23 Comments
JJE
Important to observe Gitmo is the only foreign (and illegal, not to mention offensive) military base in Cuba. It's an affront to public decency and the sovereignty of Havana.
JeffLee
This is an outrage!! An organized effort to detain people who commit violent crimes after they illegally sneaked into the country. What other country would do this?!?!? (apart from all of them)
I think we're starting to learn why Trump got elected.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Congress has this singular opportunity to stop this disgrace. Perhaps in the future it can be renamed the Trump MAGA Detention Facility.
TaiwanIsNotChina
No, the Chinese spy base is still there and if the russians aren't, it Is only because they are too poor to run overseas bases.
Blacklabel
A definite win. Good place to keep these violent illegals who entered our country with impunity the last 4 years.
”I’m not going back to Haiti” the drug lord screamed. Obama! Biden! Thank you for all you done for me!
oh ok then, we have a place for you instead.
chotto_2
Trump just wants to try out his big-boy scrawl on legal documents. Doesn't know what he's doing.
The Avenger
Trump just signed the Laken Riley act which states that illegals that are thieves, murderers, - CRIMINALS - will be deported. That also means that the useful ones who can behave themselves will not be deported.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laken_Riley_Act
Signed into law by President Donald Trump on January 29, 2025
deanzaZZR
According to Wikipedia the Guantanamo Bay lease to the USA has no fixed termination date. I thought we could look forward to a time when this crime against humanity would be shut down. welp
wallace
Does Trump intend to rule by Executive Orders?
bass4funk
To get things started yes, all Presidents do this and then later go through the legislation process.
wallace
Executive orders signed by
Obama 227
Biden 162
Trump 220
Blacklabel
When you have countries denying their own people back because those people are “dangerous” you know you are on the right path.
supposedly all these illegals ran for their lives from their home countries. The ones that are back seem to be treated perfectly fine, no?
Fos
Lets talk about China or Russia. One more evidence, in case we needed it, that the United States are the most lawless and dangerous country in the world by far
iknowall
30,000 illegal migrants
wallace
They could be detained and housed in the US especially as it is not legal to detain people in a black site which remains the problem with the remaining 15 terrorists. Detained without trial.
bass4funk
More coming
They could, but they shouldn’t.
Too bad
Terrosts forfeited that luxury
Blacklabel
The extra knowledge that they won’t be detained in the US with benefits and free wi-fi is even more motivation to just self deport if you not supposed to be in our country.
TokyoLiving
Evil monster..
iknowall
Nothing to worry about as Guantanamo Bay is not a black site, and is under US jurisdiction.
Of course, if someone did not want to risk being housed for free at Guantanamo Bay, they could always make the decision to not illegally enter the US.
Attilathehungry
Sounds like a good plan. Keeping criminals away from the country is very smart. Might also 'encourage' other illegal immigrants to consider moving back to their homelands.
Next step is eliminating the criminal cartels who facilitate the human trafficking. The misery they cause, unspeakable crimes committed against women and girls, is sickening.
TaiwanIsNotChina
You: You can't heckin hold a military base lease!
Also you: Ukraine needs to be devoured by russia.
TaiwanIsNotChina
You talk about China or russia by talking about the US? Truly fascinating.
Desert Tortoise
Possession of the base is not a crime against anything but some of the activities by US forces there would very likely fit the description of war crimes under the Geneva Conventions. By the standards of the training I received from the US Navy water boarding meets all the definitions of torture prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. So does stress positions, playing loud music non stop and keeping lights on all the time.
Housing immigrants there opens up more avenues for crimes to be committed and especially since those detained won't have access to attorneys and likely will be denied hearings or any other kind of due process that is necessary in a nation that honors its laws and the legislative process from which those laws emerge. You descend into unregulated strong man rule with no accountability.