Donald Trump wants to send immigrants without papers to Guantanamo and ask to prepare 30,000 beds

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, He deepened his offensive against illegal migration, one of his main campaign promises, and said he will sign a decree to send tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants to the US naval base in Guantanamo in Cuba.

“Today I also sign an executive order to instruct the National Defense and Security departments that begin to prepare the Migrant Center for 30,000 people in Guantanamo Bay,” Trump said from the White House.

“Most people don’t even know. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst illegal foreign criminals that threaten the US people. This will double our ability immediately,” he added.

Some “are so bad that we do not even trust that countries retain them, because we don’t want them to return,” he accused. It is a “place that is difficult to leave.”

Shortly after Trump’s statements, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, reacted to the project: “In the act of brutality, the new US government announces imprisonment based on Guantanam to the well -known prisons of illegal torture and detention. ”

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said from his side in X that this decision “shows contempt for human condition and international law.”

Trump’s statements occurred just before he signed Laken Riley law, the first major legislative victory of his second term, which requires the arrest of undocumented migrants accused of certain crimes. The Congress approved it earlier this month with the support of the Democrats.

The president did not immediately provide more information about what exactly his executive action on Guantanamo would imply, or when he would sign it.

The American naval base, on the east coast of Cuba, since 1903 occupies an area of ​​117 km2, of which only 49 km2 are on the mainland.

Inside is a prison, inaugurated in 2002, as part of the “War on Terrorism” declared by former President George W. Bush after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Hundreds of prisoners have passed through it, including some members of Al Qaeda. It is controversial due to its extreme conditions of detention and the use of torture.

Last September, the New York Times obtained government documents that show that the base has also been used for decades to imprison some intercepted migrants in the sea.

Joe Biden’s government had discussed the use of that center to process Haitian migrants fleeing the worsening of conditions in their country last year. The US army also prepared the site to house migrants fleeing from the Catastrophic earthquake of 2010 in Haiti.

Guantanamo Bay facilities They are far from being prepared to house up to 30,000 migrants an American official told CNN.

“There is no way that there are 30,000 beds,” said the US official, adding that the capacity existed in the 1990s, but not anymore. And to attend to that number of people, said the official, the United States would have to bring “a lot of military personnel.”

“If they sent many migrants (to Guantanamo Bay), they would need much more personal to manage them,” added the official. “They could not do it with what they have now, in any way.”

Hours before, the Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, announced that the Government revoked the extension of the migratory amparo for Venezuelans decided by former President Biden shortly before leaving office.

“The inhabitants of this country want this garbage outside. They want their communities to be safe,” said Noem. “We have stopped that” and “we will follow the procedure and evaluate all these individuals who are in our country,” he insisted.

On January 10, just when Nicolás Maduro irregularly assumed power in Caracas, the Biden government prolonged the temporary protection status (TPS) for 18 months for Venezuelans, from April 3, 2025 until October 2, 2026 It is estimated that about one million Venezuelans would be in that situation.