President Donald Trump’s administration was sending undocumented immigrants apprehended at the Southern border to the U.S. Naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba on Tuesday.
CNN is reporting that the Pentagon has also begun constructing a tent city intended to detain up to 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers. Experts, politicians, and activists are condemning the move.
“It’s the perfect place to provide for migrants who are traveling out of our country ... but also hardened criminals,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday.
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Guantánamo Bay is notorious for human rights violations and torture of suspected terrorists during George W. Bush’s presidency. As of January 2025, 15 detainees remained out of 780.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said last week.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the move. “For Cuba, the violent and indiscriminate deportation of immigrants by the United States, arbitrary detentions and other human rights violations are unacceptable ... The establishment of a detention center at the American naval base in Guantánamo, where it is intended to imprison tens of thousands of people, constitutes a barbaric act.”
One former Homeland Security official told CNN they were unsure of the legality of the move. “They’d be pushing the limits of where the (Immigration and Nationality Act) applies,” they said — it is unclear whether American immigration law would be in effect. CNN also reported that it was unclear as to whether detainees would have access to legal or social services.
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Advocates are outraged. “Sending immigrants to Guantánamo is a profoundly cruel, costly move,” Amnesty International’s Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights, Amy Fischer, posted on X. “It will cut people off from lawyers, family and support systems, throwing them into a black hole so the U.S. government can continue to violate their human rights out of sight. Shut Gitmo down now and forever!”
“Use of Guantánamo Bay to detain people is the latest in a shocking plan to expand the immigration detention system,” Stacy Suh, program director of Detention Watch Network, said in a statement.
“Guantánamo Bay’s abusive history speaks for itself and in no uncertain terms will put people’s physical and mental health in jeopardy," Suh said. "If realized, Trump’s immigration detention expansion will tear apart families, put people’s lives in danger, and cost taxpayers greatly ... This moment demands a national outcry — our elected officials cannot afford to remain silent on Trump’s excessive cruelty."
Click here to read CNN's report in its entirety.
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