U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign the Laken Riley Act, at the White House in Washington on Jan. 29, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will order his administration to prepare Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military base in Cuba where terrorism suspects have been held for decades, to detain migrants.
Trump, at a ceremony to sign an immigration detention bill into law, said he would also sign an executive order Wednesday instructing his Defense and Homeland Security departments to ready Guantanamo’s “migrant facility.”
Trump said there are thousands of beds in Guantanamo to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
“We don’t want them coming back,” Trump said. “So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo.”
Guantanamo has held migrants for decades, though the facility’s maximum capacity is unclear. The New York Times, citing the Department of Homeland Security, reported that just four migrants were being held there as of February.
The Global Detention Project, a research center that advocates for detainees’ rights, suggests on its website that the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center has a capacity of 130.
Trump claimed Wednesday that Guantanamo has 30,000 beds, and that opening it up to detain migrants “will double our capacity immediately.”
He added, “It’s a tough place to get out of.”
Trump, since taking office last week, has taken numerous actions to crack down on illegal U.S. border crossings and deport undocumented migrants en masse.
Illegal crossings rose sharply during President Joe Biden’s presidency, but fell in the final months of the Democrat’s term.
The Guantanamo Bay detention center has been used since 2002 to hold hundreds of people suspected of terrorism and other crimes. Established during the “War on Terror” that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S., Guantanamo Bay has held more than 780 detainees in total, the Times reported.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.