US President Donald Trump ordered the construction of a migrant home in Guantanamo Bay, from which he said she would hold up to 30,000 people.
He said that the U.S. naval base in Cuba, which would be separated from her military prison, would “accommodate the worst criminal illegal foreigners who threaten the American people”.
Guantanamo Bay has long been used to accommodate immigrants, a practice that has been criticized by some human rights groups.
Later on Wednesday, Trump’s “Grenzzar” Tom Homan said that the existing facility would be expanded there and would be operated by immigration and customs authority (ICE).
He said that the migrants could be transported there immediately after intercepting the US Coast Guard and that the “highest” prison standards were used.
It is unclear how much the facility will cost or when it would be completed.
Cuba’s government quickly condemned the plan and accused the USA of torture and illegal detention on “occupied” land.
Trump’s announcement came when he signed the so-called Riley law sheet to the law, which does not require documented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes that are held in prison until the procedure.
The draft law, named after a nursing student in Georgia, who was murdered by a Venezuelan migrant last year, was approved by the congress last week, an early legislative victory for the administration.
At an signing ceremony in the Eastern Zimmer of the White House, Trump said that the order of the Executive in New Guantanamo would instruct the defense and home protection authorities to “prepare” the 30,000-bed facility.
“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries because we don’t want them to come back,” he said about migrants. “So we will send you to Guantanamo … it’s a difficult place to get out.”
According to Trump, the facility will double the Capacity of the United States to keep migrants without papers.
The United States has already used a facility in Guantanamo – known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (GMOC) for decades and by various Republicans and Democrats.
In a report from 2024, the international refugee support project (IRAP) accused the government of keeping migrants secretly under “inhuman” conditions for an indefinite period after they were held at sea.
The GMOC mainly housed migrants who were picked up at sea, and was recently the subject of freedom of information from the American Civil Liberties Union for the disclosure of records over the location.
The Biden administration replied that it is “not a prison and none of the migrants are imprisoned there”.
However, the Trump administration says that the planned extended facility is very well thought of as a detention center.
According to reports, the congress will ask to finance the expansion of the existing detention center as part of an issue law that the Republicans work for the meeting.
When asked by reporters of the White House, Kristi Noem said that the Minister of Homeland only said that the money would be allocated by “reconciliation and funds”.
The military prison in Guantanamo has brought prisoners to the United States to the United States in 2001 for decades.
At his climax it held hundreds of prisoners, and several democratic presidents, including Barack Obama, swore to close it. 15 prisoners are currently being recorded there.
The expansion of the facility was described by the Cuban government with a rapid conviction from Guantanamo Bay as “occupied” and the existence of a US marine base on the island has been instructed since Fidel Castro has been in power in 1959.
“In act of brutality, the new government of the United States has announced that it is detained in the naval base in Guantanamo, which is in illegally occupied Cuban areas,” wrote Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel about X.
The Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said that the announcement had shown “contempt for human condition and international law”.
