Trump administration officials are rapidly moving forward with President Trump’s directive to turn Guantánamo Bay into a facility that could hold up to 30,000 migrants who are being deported from the United States.
Since announcing the move Jan. 29, the Pentagon flew 10 migrants described as “high-threat individuals” to the facility in Cuba less than a week later, while Defense Department and Homeland Security officials work to put the infrastructure in place to meet the demands of Trump’s order. Officials have been less clear about the long-term prospects of using Guantánamo Bay as a migrant facility.
Here’s what to know so far about the effort.
Trump ordered a 30,000-person facility
The president in late January signed a memo directing the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to prepare a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay, a facility in Cuba that has been used to house military prisoners, including several Al Qaeda operatives linked to the 9/11 attacks.
The order did not outline any specific timeline for establishing the facility, but U.S. troops arrived at the base in recent days to provide support with construction of tents near an existing migration detention 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, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo,” Trump said of plans for the expanded migrant facility. “This will double our capacity immediately. And tough, it’s a tough place to get out of.”
Semafor reported that the Trump administration is in discussions with Willscot, a company that specializes in mobile offices and shipping containers, about providing temporary space to hold migrants at Guantánamo.
The order is the latest step in a government-wide effort enacted by the Trump administration to remove certain immigrants from the United States. The White House has touted agreements with Colombia, El Salvador and Venezuela where those countries would accept deportees.
Migrants already flown to Guantanamo
The first flight of migrants to Guantánamo Bay took place this week, with a small number of individuals arriving on Wednesday.
The Pentagon announced 10 “high-threat illegal aliens” were sent to the facility. Those individuals are being held in vacant detention facilities, the Pentagon said, until they can be transported to their home country or another destination.
“The detention of these high-threat illegal aliens at Guantánamo Bay is a temporary measure, and the Department of Defense will continue to support the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies in their efforts to facilitate the removal of the aliens as soon as possible,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
While other flights to Guantánamo are expected in the coming weeks, the Pentagon has been using military aircraft to deport immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally back to their country of origin.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested Guantánamo Bay could be used as an interim holding space for migrants while the U.S. reaches agreements with other countries to process deportees.
Officials won’t rule out sending women, children
Trump administration officials have signaled that the migrants who will be kept at Guantánamo are violent criminals and single men.
But as facilities to hold thousands of migrants are erected, officials have not ruled out the possibility that women and children might end up there at some point.
“So remember that Guantánamo Bay clearly, by this president, has said that it will hold the worst of the worst, that we are going after those bad actors,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on NBC. “These are the types of individuals that we are targeting, we’re removing from communities, and that could end up having a stay at Guantanamo Bay before they are returned home to their countries to deal with.”
Pressed multiple times on “Meet the Press” whether women, children and families could be held at Guantánamo, Noem would not directly answer. Instead, she reiterated the administration was focused on targeting “the worst of the worst.”
Scrutiny of conditions
Trump critics and watchdog groups are expected to keep a close watch on the treatment of migrants and the conditions they’re kept in at Guantánamo Bay, given the facility’s reputation.
Guantánamo Bay is best known as a military base where terror suspects are held. It became infamous for accusations of torture and abuse as the U.S. carried out the war on terrorism. The Biden administration sought to wind down operations at the facility, and there are 15 prisoners still there.
Noem has said the administration intends to follow due process with migrants at Guantánamo so that those being held there would have the same rights they would if detained in the United States.
The secretary also said the administration does not plan on holding migrants at Guantánamo long-term.
“The plan is to have a process that we follow that’s laid out in law and make sure that we’re dealing with these individuals appropriately according to what the state and the national…law directs,” Noem said. “So we will work with Congress to make sure that we’re addressing our legal immigration laws and using Guantanamo Bay appropriately. But it is an asset that we have that we fully intend to utilize.”
Some Democratic lawmakers have argued the use of such a notorious facility to house migrants is intended as a scare tactic as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration.
“It’s all about scaring and intimidating people,” Sen. Mark Kelly (R-Ariz.) said. “It’s the same thing for Guantanamo Bay. Building a facility there is because it just sounds very frightening to a lot of folks.”
