U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a presidential memorandum to set up a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay to detain “high-priority criminal aliens.”
The Guantanamo Bay facility, known for holding terrorism suspects and “illegal enemy combatants”, will now be used to house illegal immigrants with criminal records.
At a White House event on Wednesday, Trump explained the purpose of the facility:
“Most people don’t even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” Trump said.
The memorandum directs the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to expand the Migrant Operations Center at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to accommodate the detainees.
Trump added that some of the immigrants will be sent to Guantanamo because their home countries cannot be trusted to hold them.
“Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust their home countries to hold them. Because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them to Guantanamo,” he stated.
“This will double our capacity immediately. It’s a tough place to get out of. Today’s signing brings us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all,” he said.
With this memorandum, Trump has ramped up efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S., fulfilling a key promise from his campaign.
He added that the memorandum is aimed at halting border invasions, dismantling criminal cartels, and restoring national sovereignty.
Guantanamo Bay has been criticized for human rights violations for years. The detention camp, set up in 2002, has been accused of torture and holding people without trial. Groups like Amnesty International say detainees face inhumane treatment and lack medical care. Despite promises to close it, the camp is still open.
