Trump Announces Plan to Transform Guantanamo into Immigration Detention Center
President Donald Trump unveiled plans to repurpose the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba as a holding center for undocumented immigrants, Al Jazeera reports.
The announcement followed the signing of the Laken Riley Act, his administration’s first major piece of legislation, which significantly expands the grounds for deportation.
Trump, who campaigned on a platform of “mass deportation,” stated that the Guantanamo facility would be converted to house up to 30,000 undocumented immigrants.
“Today, I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay,” he declared during a White House address.
He said that most Americans were unaware of the facility’s large capacity.
The Laken Riley Act, named after a nursing student murdered in 2024 by an undocumented immigrant with a prior shoplifting arrest, mandates the detention and potential deportation of non-citizens unlawfully present in the U.S. who are arrested or charged with certain crimes, regardless of conviction. Trump explicitly linked the act and the Guantanamo plan, arguing they served a similar goal of strengthening border security and deterring illegal immigration.
The announcement has sparked immediate outrage from human rights organizations. They have long condemned Guantanamo for its alleged inhumane treatment of detainees and lack of due process, citing years of detention without trial. The facility, opened in 2002 to house terrorism suspects, currently holds only 15 detainees following the recent transfer of prisoners under the Biden administration. President Obama had previously aimed to close the facility.
Trump, however, has consistently sought to expand Guantanamo’s use, including accepting new detainees. He described the repurposing as a means to “double” immigration detention capacity, claiming that the 30,000 beds would be used to detain “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.” He added that some detainees were considered too dangerous to be held by other countries.
Trump’s “mass deportation” plan has faced criticism over its feasibility given resource constraints. His 2024 re-election campaign heavily emphasized the need to counter a perceived “migrant invasion,” using the Laken Riley case as a central example.
