Donald Trump orders detention centre in Guantanamo Bay to hold 30,000 deported migrants

Donald Trump stated that he would order the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay to house up to 30,000 immigrants residing illegally in the United States. Trump said at the White House, "Today, I am also signing an executive order directing the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to begin preparing immigration facilities at Guantanamo Bay to accommodate 30,000 people."

The U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already has an immigration facility separate from the high-security U.S. prison that holds foreign terrorism suspects. The facility has been used sporadically for decades, including to house Haitians and Cubans apprehended at sea. However, the move to house tens of thousands of immigrants at the base would further expand the Pentagon’s role in Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

The U.S. President made the announcement directly before signing his first piece of legislation on Wednesday. The legislation mandates the detention and potential deportation of those residing illegally in the U.S. who are accused of theft and violent crimes before being sentenced. “We’re going to send them to Guantanamo,” the President said, without elaborating. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the plan as “an act of barbarity” in a statement on Wednesday.

“As an act of barbarity, the new US government announces the imprisonment in the Guantanamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied Cuban territory,” the President said on X, adding that the immigrants would be held near facilities he said the US had used for “torture and illegal detention.” The US detention facility was established in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush to detain foreign militant suspects following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. There are currently 15 detainees remaining at the prison.

The facility for immigrants is separate from the detention center on the base. On Tuesday, the U.S. military said it would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado. The U.S. military has previously been involved in deporting immigrants and deployed more than 1,600 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border last week after Trump declared an immigration emergency.