Donald Trump signs executive order to send 30,000 immigrants to Guantánamo Bay

A new executive order was yesterday signed by Donald Trump, announcing plans to construct a colossal centre at Guantánamo Bay, which will be used to detain as many as 30,000 immigrants deported from the US.

The measure - approved by the newly sworn-in Republican leader on Wednesday (29 Jan) - forms part of Trump's wider mission to undergo the 'largest deportation programme in history'.

Trump's deportation plans

Speaking at his inauguration on 20 Jan, 78-year-old Trump announced his plans to 'halt' all 'illegal entry' into the US, as part of a plan to restore the 'Golden Age' of America.

"We will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," he told listeners.

In the days that followed, he went on to announce his intentions to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants - though, this is something that has since been deemed 'unconstitutional' by a District Court Judge.

Trump also announced plans to deport 'maybe as many as 20 million' undocumented immigrants to Central and South America - whether they've been accused of a crime themselves, or are close to someone previously arrested (known as 'collateral arrests').

The likes of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and the Bureau of Prisons have been ordered by Trump to trawl through their databases for information on undocumented migrants, including possible locations.

A prior policy which prevented arrests at protected locations such as schools and churches has also since been revoked.

Trump has implemented several controversial immigration policies (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

And the 'Remain in Mexico' programme - which requires non-Mexican asylum seekers to await their US hearing dates inside Mexican territory - has been restarted.

New Guantánamo Bay detention facility policy

The latest update on Trump's immigration clamp down came yesterday when he signalled his intent to get both the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on board to construct a detention centre in Guantánamo Bay.

He expressed hope that the facility would 'detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people'.

The president spoke of the individuals the new measure would be aimed at, explaining: "Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries [of origin] to hold them because we don’t want them coming back.

"So we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo."

He continued: "This will double our capacity immediately."

Trump announced his detention centre plans on Wednesday (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

What is Guantánamo Bay currently used for?

The US obtained territorial control and jurisdiction of the southern portion of Guantánamo Bay - a harbour at the southeastern end of Cuba - in 1903, going on to build a vast naval base in the years that followed.

The facility itself - which opened in 2002 - is currently used to house migrants who've been rescued while at sea and is regarded as highly secretive.

The detention centre has made headlines for its conditions, which Amnesty International describes as 'a symbol of torture, rendition and indefinite detention without charge or trial'.

According to the New York Times - which cited the DHS - the facility does not appear in public government reports, and as of February 2024, only held four individuals.

Trump's new plans were announced yesterday as he signed the Laken Riley Act, which rules that immigrants who are not in the US legally and are charged with theft-related crimes, be detained.

The policy is named after a 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuela-born undocumented immigrant on the campus of the University of Georgia in 2023.

The specifics regarding Guantánamo Bay were later explained by Trump in his new policy, which read: "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, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security."

It added: "This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty."