Simply eight days after returning to the White Home final yr, President Trump introduced plans to show the U.S. army base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a large detention middle to carry 30,000 detainees dealing with deportation as a part of his aggressive crackdown on unlawful immigration.
However a CBS Information overview of inner authorities paperwork and knowledge supplied to Congress reveals the detention services at Guantanamo Bay are sitting largely empty over a yr later, despite the fact that the extremely publicized operation is projected to price the American army over $70 million.
On Could 11, the U.S. authorities was holding simply six immigration detainees on the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, all of them nationals of Haiti, in line with federal paperwork obtained by CBS Information. Over the previous yr, the paperwork present, 832 immigration detainees have been transferred to the bottom on greater than 100 flights.
The truth is, there are considerably extra authorities staff assigned to the immigration detention operation at Guantanamo than detainees, in line with the paperwork. This week, authorities staff outnumbered detainees roughly 100 to 1.
Figures supplied to Congress point out the Division of Protection has 522 personnel to help with immigration detention at Guantanamo. The interior federal paperwork present there are round 60 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and non-military employees assigned to the mission, too.
Info supplied by the Division of Protection to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in April additionally reveals the Guantanamo immigration detention effort is anticipated to price $73 million, only for the U.S. army. That is a rise from the beforehand publicly reported estimate of $40 million.
Mr. Trump stated in January 2025 that officers would arrange 30,000 detention beds at Guantanamo. However the inner federal paperwork point out the bottom’s capability to carry immigration detainees is restricted to roughly 400 beds. On Could 11, fewer than 2% of the beds had been occupied.
Along with the numbers supplied to Congress, the paperwork make clear the standing of the controversial and largely secretive effort to carry civil immigration detainees at Guantanamo, the place the indefinite detention of post-9/11 terrorism suspects gained infamy over allegations of abuse, due course of violations and torture.
In a press release to CBS Information, Warren, who obtained the projected price for the Guantanamo operation, accused President Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth of “losing billions in taxpayer funds on a merciless immigration agenda.”
CBS Information has reached out to the Pentagon and the Division of Homeland Safety for remark, together with on whether or not the Trump administration plans to proceed the operation to carry immigrant detainees on the naval base.
In a press release Wednesday, DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis stated, “Should you come to our nation illegally and break our legal guidelines, you could possibly find yourself in Guantanamo Bay, CECOT, or a 3rd nation. Our message is obvious: felony unlawful aliens will not be welcome within the U.S.”
“Political theater”
AP Picture/Ramon Espinosa, File
Publicly, the Trump administration has launched scant particulars about its operation to carry these awaiting deportation on the Guantanamo base, which sits on Cuban land that the U.S. has lengthy argued is being leased. The Cuban authorities alleges the association is against the law.
Earlier than the second Trump administration, the U.S. authorities, underneath Republican and Democratic presidents, used Guantanamo to accommodate some migrants intercepted at sea, together with tens of 1000’s of Haitians in the course of the Clinton administration.
However in February 2025, officers started sending teams of detainees arrested by ICE within the U.S. to Guantanamo, in order that they could possibly be held there pending their deportation. Initially, Mr. Trump and his prime aides vowed to ship the “worst” detainees and “high-priority felony aliens” to Guantanamo. However subsequent reporting discovered that was not totally correct.
Quickly after the trouble began, CBS Information revealed Guantanamo was getting used to carry each migrants with alleged gang or felony histories, and detainees categorized as “low-risk” as a result of they lacked severe felony information — or any in any respect. Then, in April 2025, CBS Information disclosed that the inner authorities memo governing the operation gave officers wide-ranging discretion to determine who to ship to Guantanamo, together with the power to switch non-criminal detainees there.
Officers have been housing the detainees thought-about to be “low-risk” on the Migration Operations Heart, a barrack-like facility that had beforehand held asylum-seekers intercepted at sea. In the meantime, these deemed to be “high-risk” immigration detainees have been detained at Camp VI, a bit of the post-9/11 jail advanced that also holds some terrorism suspects.
The legality of detaining civil immigration detainees at Guantanamo remains to be being litigated. In December, a federal decide in Washington, D.C., present in a preliminary ruling that the immigration detention effort at Guantanamo was “impermissibly punitive” and sure illegal, however stopped wanting blocking the operation.
Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who filed the lawsuit, stated “using Guantanamo is nothing greater than political theater like so many different administration insurance policies.”
“Not solely is the Trump administration’s use of Guantanamo unprecedented and unlawful, but it surely serves no reputable coverage purpose given the monetary and logistical burdens of utilizing this infamous army base for immigration functions,” Gelernt stated.
Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS immigration official underneath presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, stated the Trump administration arrange Guantanamo and different controversial services, similar to “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, to push individuals within the U.S. illegally to self-deport and deter others from coming into the nation unlawfully.
Cardinal Brown stated Guantanamo’s deterrence impact is troublesome to measure, past the low ranges of unlawful crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border. However she stated it is clear the operation has been pricey.
“All the things needs to be shipped in there, proper? It isn’t like we’re importing issues from Cuba,” Cardinal Brown stated. “All the things has to return from a U.S. supply to that army set up. It should be a lot, far more costly.”
