He stated the migrants could possibly be transported there instantly after being intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard, and that the “highest” detention requirements could be utilized.
It’s unclear how a lot the ability will price or when it might be accomplished.
Cuba’s authorities swiftly condemned the plan, accusing the US of torture and unlawful detention on “occupied” land.
Trump’s announcement got here as he signed the so-called Laken Riley Act into regulation, which requires undocumented immigrants who’re arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.
The invoice, named after a Georgia nursing pupil who was murdered final yr by a Venezuelan migrant, was permitted by Congress final week, an early legislative win for the administration.
At a signing ceremony within the East Room of the White Home, Trump stated the brand new Guantanamo govt order would instruct the departments of defence and homeland safety to “start making ready” the 30,000-bed facility.
“A few of them are so dangerous we do not even belief the nations to maintain them, as a result of we do not need them coming again,” he stated of migrants. “So we’re going to send them to Guantanamo… it is a powerful place to get out.”
In accordance to Trump, the ability will double the US capability to maintain undocumented migrants.
The US has already been utilizing a facility in Guantanamo – referred to as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Heart (GMOC) – for many years and thru numerous administrations, each Republican and Democrat.
In a 2024 report, the Worldwide Refugee Help Undertaking (IRAP) accused the federal government of secretly holding migrants there in “inhumane” circumstances indefinitely after detaining them at sea.
The GMOC has principally housed migrants picked up at sea and was just lately the topic of a Freedom of Data request by the American Civil Liberties Union for the disclosure of information in regards to the web site.
The Biden Administration responded that it “shouldn’t be a detention facility and not one of the migrants there are detained”.
The Trump administration, nevertheless, says the deliberate expanded facility could be very a lot meant as a detention centre.
It will reportedly ask Congress to fund the enlargement of the prevailing detention facility as a part of a spending invoice Republicans are working to assemble.