President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Wednesday, Jan. 29, ordering the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security to prepare Guantanamo Bay for the detention of 30,000 migrants. The president signaled the order would be coming in remarks he made while signing the Laken Riley Act, which widens the scope of crimes that allow the federal government to deport migrants.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back. So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately.”
Guantanamo Bay is the U.S. military base in Cuba where 15 detainees remain following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, it has held hundreds of suspects with alleged links to terrorism.
The long-term detention facility, which housed many individuals before or without trial, raised concerns over violations of international law. Over the years, reports have emerged of U.S. intelligence and military officials torturing inmates through methods including waterboarding, sexual assault and sleep deprivation.
Before the 9/11 attacks, Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton used the base to house thousands of refugees fleeing Haiti, beginning in 1991. A federal judge later ordered the federal government to move the migrants to the U.S., citing human rights violations against prisoners who were HIV-positive.
The details of what’s next are a bit unclear, with officials telling outlets including CNN and NBC News that the base does not currently have the resources to house 30,000 migrants. Pentagon officials were also reportedly surprised by Trump’s directive because they had been winding down operations at Guantanamo Bay.