- Trump orders the construction of a 30,000-bed migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.
- The facility will be managed by ICE and used to detain migrants intercepted at sea.
- Cuba condemns the plan, calling it illegal detention on “occupied” land.
US President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of a large migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, saying it will be capable of holding up to 30,000 people.
The facility, located at the US Navy base in Cuba, will be separate from the high-security military prison and, according to Trump, will house “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” Guantanamo Bay has historically been used to detain migrants, a practice that has drawn criticism from human rights organizations.
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Later on Wednesday, Trump’s “border tsar,” Tom Homan, announced that the existing migrant operations centre at Guantanamo would be expanded and placed under the management of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He added that migrants intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard could be transported directly to the facility, which would adhere to the “highest” detention standards.
The cost and timeline for the facility’s completion remain unclear. However, the Cuban government swiftly condemned the plan, accusing the US of human rights violations and illegal detention on what it considers “occupied” land.
Trump’s announcement coincided with his signing of the Laken Riley Act, a law mandating that undocumented immigrants arrested for theft or violent crimes be detained pending trial. The bill, named after a Georgia nursing student murdered last year by a Venezuelan migrant, was passed by Congress last week, marking an early legislative victory for the administration.
During the signing ceremony at the White House, Trump confirmed that his executive order instructs the Departments of Defence and Homeland Security to begin preparations for the 30,000-bed facility. “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. “So we’re going to send them to Guantanamo… it’s a tough place to get out.”
The new facility is expected to double the US’s capacity to detain undocumented migrants. The US has long operated a migrant holding centre at Guantanamo, known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Centre (GMOC), where migrants intercepted at sea have been held under various administrations.
A 2024 report by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) accused the US government of secretly detaining migrants there indefinitely in “inhumane” conditions. The Biden administration denied the allegations, stating that the GMOC “is not a detention facility and none of the migrants there are detained.”
However, Trump’s administration has made clear that the planned expansion is intended as a fully operational detention centre. Reports indicate that the White House will request congressional funding for the facility as part of a broader spending bill being developed by Republican lawmakers.
When questioned by reporters at the White House, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that funding for the facility would be allocated through “reconciliation and appropriations,” without providing further details.
Guantanamo’s military prison has housed detainees taken into US custody following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. At its peak, it held hundreds of prisoners, and multiple Democratic presidents, including Barack Obama, have pledged to close it. Currently, 15 detainees remain at the facility.
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The announcement of Guantanamo’s expansion drew immediate condemnation from the Cuban government, which has long denounced the US presence on the island, considering the naval base “illegally occupied” since Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959.
“In an act of brutality, the new US government has announced it will incarcerate thousands of forcibly expelled migrants at the Guantanamo naval base—on illegally occupied Cuban territory—placing them near known sites of torture and illegal detention,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also criticized the move, calling it a display of “contempt for the human condition and international law.”
