On Wednesday, January 29th, US President Trump announced his plans to order the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to construct a facility in Guantanamo Bay capable of housing 30,000 illegal immigrants.
President Trump stated that the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be used to “contain the worst illegal immigrant criminals” as they pose a threat to the American people. However, the president did not provide further details on the plan.
President Trump signed into law on Wednesday a bill aimed at protecting Americans from murders committed by illegal immigrants, called the “Laken Riley Act,” named after a nursing student from the University of Georgia who was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2024. The legislation directs law enforcement agencies to detain and deport certain undocumented immigrants who are accused or convicted of crimes.
Speaking about illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the US, President Trump said, “Some of these people are too bad; we don’t even believe their home countries will take them back.”
“Since we don’t want them coming back either, we will send them to Guantanamo Bay,” added Trump.
Guantanamo Bay is located in Guantanamo Province at the southeastern tip of Cuba, housing a US naval base known as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The base was used as a US immigration detention center in the 1980s and 1990s, detaining thousands of Haitians. The Biden administration has also utilized the facility to house a small number of immigrants for their eventual resettlement to third countries.
The base is renowned for detaining suspected terrorists, currently guarded by several hundred US troops. According to laws passed by Congress, the Guantanamo Bay prison does not hold any American prisoners, and the inmates currently held there cannot be transferred to the US.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, mentioned the evaluation and discussions on transferring illegal immigrants to the detention center, stating, “We are assessing and discussing this matter.”
It is currently unclear how long President Trump plans to detain illegal immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. Under current laws, if the government is unable to deport immigrants, they cannot be detained indefinitely for immigration violations.