The Trump administration on Tuesday flew its first group of migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba for detention, advancing the president’s plans to expand deportation of undocumented migrants.
An official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told the Washington Post that nine to 10 “dangerous criminals” were on one military plane to the base for detention.
President Donald Trump used similar language last week when he ordered the construction of a detention camp at the base that could add 30,000 new detention beds to hold “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”
That would be a significant increase from the U.S.’s current detention capacity. Nationally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintains just 40,000 beds to detain undocumented immigrants while they await court rulings on their legal status.
But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has suggested that the detainment facility would be used for “temporary transit” while officials process paperwork and arrange travel.
Trump campaigned on a vow to enforce the “largest deportation operation in American history” and often portrays undocumented immigrants as criminals, though there is little evidence supporting that position.
As of Tuesday, there were about 300 service members supporting the holding operations at Guantánamo Bay, the Associated Press reported, though those numbers are expected to fluctuate at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security, which is responsible for that change.
The administration has not said how much it will cost to detain immigrants at the base, and it’s unclear how many migrants will be held there in the coming weeks, or for how long they will be detained.
In the past, the government has used Guantánamo Bay facilities to detain refugees and asylum seekers, but it is not given high priority because of its isolation and infrastructure, according to the Washington Post.
