Zinger Key Points
- “We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump says.
- A small portion of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has periodically been used to house migrant detainees for decades.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will deport up to 30,000 migrant detainees to a detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
The Details: Trump signed a presidential memorandum that ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense to expand the migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to "full capacity" as his administration ramps up deportations.
"We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people," Trump said during the signing of the Laken Riley Act at the White House.
"Some of them are so bad, we don't even trust other countries to hold them, and we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately," Trump added.
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History Of Guantanamo Bay: A small portion of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has periodically been used to house migrant detainees for decades by several presidential administrations.
The designated area, known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center, held an average monthly population of 14 migrants and 20 refugees from December 2021 to December 2022, according to a report from Drop Site News.
"The idea that the Trump administration is going to send 30,000 migrants to Guantánamo is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard all week. It's utterly absurd," J. Wells Dixon, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents detainees at the Guantanamo military prison, told Drop Site News.
"The MOC is a dilapidated dormitory," added Dixon, who has seen the facility during visits to Guantanamo.
A U.S. official told CNN on Wednesday the facility was not prepared to hold 30,000 migrants and would also need additional staff to function at that capacity.
"There's no way there's 30,000 beds anymore," the US official said.
Adding Capacity: It is not immediately clear how much construction may be necessary to expand the Guantanamo MOC facility or even if 30,000 is the goal for capacity. Government contractors who run some of the country's private prison systems may be called on for assistance in the event of expansion.
Geo Group Inc. GEO previously held a government contract to operate the MOC at Guantanamo and could be selected again as plans to expand the facility develop. CoreCivic, Inc. CXW, another private prison and detention center operator, could also potentially provide services if needed.
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