President Trump's vision of turning Guantanamo Bay into a vast holding site for migrants has, so far, materialized mostly on paper. A year after Trump pledged to create 30,000 detention beds there, internal documents reviewed by CBS News show the base instead has space for 400 immigration detainees, yet is holding only six—all Haitian nationals. The US military's price tag for the operation, meanwhile, is projected at $73 million, with more than 500 Defense Department personnel and about 60 ICE and civilian staff assigned, meaning workers currently outnumber detainees by roughly 100 to 1.
Since February 2025, 832 detainees have cycled through the base on more than 100 flights, including people with no serious criminal history, despite early promises Guantanamo would be reserved for "high-priority" offenders. The average stay was just two weeks, per the Washington Times. The legality of holding civil immigration detainees at a site synonymous with post-9/11 terrorism cases is under challenge; a federal judge has already called the setup likely unlawful, but allowed it to continue for now, per Law & Crime. Critics, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the ACLU, describe the operation as costly political theater with no real policy goal, while DHS insists it's a clear warning that "criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US." (Another immigration detention center is costing Florida $1 million a day.)
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