Trump admin rethinking Guantánamo immigrant detention plan
President Trump still wants to use the base for detention, but a scaled-down version is the most likely outcome, sources said.
President Donald Trump’s plan to use the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to detain 30,000 immigrants has been hitting major legal, logistical and financial hurdles ever since he surprised many in his own administration by announcing it. Now, as agencies spar over responsibility for operations there and over blame for what has gone wrong, there is a growing recognition within the administration that it was a political decision that is just not working.
Among the major issues, especially as the Trump administration works to slash spending throughout the government, is the cost. Taking detained immigrants to Guantánamo means flying them there, and the administration has sometimes chosen to use military planes that are expensive to operate.
On Tuesday of last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on hand at Guantánamo when a military C-130 carrying nine immigrants landed at the base. The Defense Department calculates the cost per flight hour to operate a C-130 at $20,756, so for a trip of five to six hours, it cost the Pentagon $207,000 to $249,000 round trip, or $23,000 to $27,000 per detainee.
The first plane of detained migrants arrives at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay on Feb. 4. Chad McNeeley / Defense Department via AFP via Getty Images fileCosts for those flights are lower when charter planes that Immigration and Customs Enforcement typically uses for deportation flights are employed in place of the military aircraft. But the administration has opted for military planes for reasons of optics, according to a defense official. When charter planes are used, the operation is still a heavy logistical and financial lift, especially compared with keeping the detainees on the mainland. Each flight includes at least one ICE official for every migrant, often more, as well as a medical team. ICE estimates the average cost of one of its regular charter flights at $8,577 per hour and the cost for “special high-risk charter” flights at $6,929 to $26,795 per hour, but those figures include “flight crew, security personnel, an onboard medical professional and all associated aviation handling and overflight fees,” which the Defense Department estimates for the C-130 do not.
And the space planned to hold the 30,000 immigrants is far from ready. Tents built for that purpose lack air conditioning and running water and do not meet ICE standards for detention, according to the defense official and an additional defense official.
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