Trump directs Pentagon, DHS to prepare migrant housing at Guantanamo Bay
Trump said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. has "30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people."
President Donald Trump signed a memo Wednesday that sets in motion preparations for a facility to house thousands of migrants at the U.S. military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he said was an effort to "halt the border invasion."
"I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States," the memo to the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department says.
Trump previewed the directive at a signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure, saying he would "instruct the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay."
The sun sets behind the closed Camp X-Ray detention facility at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, on April 17, 2019. Alex Brandon / AP file"Most people don’t even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back," he added.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday night that the naval base "is a perfect spot" for Trump's mass deportation plans.
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