US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will instruct the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay capable of housing up to 30,000 migrants.
The US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, already hosts a migrant facility, separate from the high-security prison for foreign terrorism suspects, which has been used intermittently for decades to hold migrants, including Haitians and Cubans intercepted at sea.
Trump’s border official Tom Homan confirmed that the existing facility would be expanded, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency overseeing operations.
Trump stated, “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.” He added that the facility would house “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” including those who pose such a risk that the US does not trust their home countries to keep them.
Shortly afterward, Trump signed a memorandum calling for “additional detention space” at the expanded facility, though it did not specify the number of migrants it would accommodate.
Homan described the center as being intended for “the worst of the worst.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned that the administration was working with Congress on funding for the facility.
The Guantanamo Bay detention facility, established in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush, was initially created to detain foreign militant suspects after the 9/11 attacks. The prison now holds just 15 detainees. Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, sought to close the facility, but Trump has pledged to keep it open.
The facility has long been criticized by human rights organizations for indefinite detention and harsh interrogation methods that critics argue amounted to torture.
The new migrant facility will be distinct from the prison for terrorism suspects on the base. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel condemned Trump’s plan as “an act of brutality.”
Pro-refugee groups have called for the closure of the Guantanamo migrant facility and an investigation by Congress into reported abuses there. A 2024 report by the International Refugee Assistance Project cited allegations of unsanitary conditions, the mixing of families with young children and single adults, limited access to confidential phone calls, and a lack of educational services for children.
In addition, the US military announced on Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be allowed to detain migrants at the Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado. This move complements ongoing deportation flights and the deployment of over 1,600 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border following Trump’s emergency immigration declaration last week.
