Trump orders expansion of Guantanamo to hold 30,000 undocumented immigrants

• Trump orders 30,000 beds to be made available in Guantanamo.
• Criticism over poor conditions at the center.
• Cuba denounces illegal occupation of the base.

President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Wednesday directing the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare 30,000 beds at the Guantanamo Naval Base, Cuba, for the detention of undocumented immigrants.

The memorandum states the detention center will be expanded «to full capacity,» without specifying exact figures.

However, Trump confirmed during a White House event that it would involve 30,000 beds.

«We will have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal immigrants who are a threat to the American people,» Trump stated during the event before signing the memorandum.

Trump Prepares Thousands of Beds for Migrants in Guantanamo

LATEST. PRESIDENT TRUMP: «Today, I am also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the center for 30,000 migrant people, who threaten the American people, in Guantanamo Bay.» pic.twitter.com/yrhpiv9yrv

– Liliana Franco (@lilianaf523) January 29, 2025

«Some are so dangerous that we don’t even trust their home countries to keep them, because we don’t want them to return. So we will send them to Guantanamo,» Trump said while enacting a law against migrants with minor offenses.

«It’s a tough place. It’s a place that’s hard to get out of,» he added about Guantanamo.

For decades, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has operated a separate migrant center in Guantanamo from the prison intended for terrorism suspects.

Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called «border czar,» told reporters that ICE will continue to be the responsible agency for the expanded center.

Trump’s Massive Raids

Trump Orders Pentagon to Prepare 30,000 Beds for Migrants in Guantanamo https://t.co/weighe8x9i

– Zonacero (@Zonacero) January 29, 2025

He added that the expansion aims to house «the worst of the worst» among undocumented migrants in Guantanamo, according to EFE.

Historically, the migrant population in Guantanamo has been low. Between 2020 and 2023, according to data from The New York Times, only 37 people were detained there.

US authorities have used the base to hold migrants intercepted at sea, mainly from Cuba and Haiti.

The base operates in a «legal void» where the same legal guarantees that apply on US territory do not apply.

A report by The New York Times published in September 2024, based on internal government reports, denounced the precarious conditions at the center.

Complaints include the mandatory use of opaque glasses during transfers, monitored calls with lawyers, and the presence of rats in some facilities.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel described the move as an «act of brutality» and denounced the naval base as being «illegally occupied territory of Cuba.»

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