President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he intends to sign an executive action directing the federal government to make preparations at the US Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the accommodation of tens of thousands of migrants.
“In addition to this action, I will be signing an executive order mandating the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to initiate the necessary steps to establish a migrant facility capable of housing up to 30,000 individuals at Guantanamo Bay,” President Trump stated while speaking from the White House.
“A vast number of individuals are unaware of this capacity. We currently have the infrastructure to detain 30,000 individuals at Guantanamo, aimed at holding the most dangerous criminal illegal immigrants who pose a threat to the safety of the American populace. This decision will effectively double our existing detention capability,” the President emphasized.
Trump’s remarks came just before he signed the Laken Riley Act, the first major legislative win of his second term, which requires the detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes. Congress passed it earlier this month with Democratic support.
“Today’s signings bring us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime in our communities once and for all,” Trump said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem rode alongside federal agents targeting a high-profile Venezuelan gang member on an immigration raid in the Bronx, NYC.
The president did not immediately provide more information about what precisely his executive action would entail, or when he would be signing it.
While the base is well-known for its detention camp where the United States holds terrorism suspects, Guantanamo Bay also hosts a separate migrant-processing center.
The Biden administration had discussed using that center to process Haitian migrants who were fleeing worsening conditions in their country last year. The US military also prepared the site to host migrants fleeing the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
The facilities at Guantanamo Bay are far from prepared to house up to 30,000 migrants, a US official told CNN.
“There’s no way there’s 30,000 beds anymore,” the US official said, adding that the capacity existed in the 1990s but no longer. And in order to care for that number of people, the official said, the US would have to bring “a lot of military staff” in.
“If they sent a lot of migrants (to Guantanamo Bay), they would need a lot more staff to manage them,” the official added. “They couldn’t do it with what they’ve got now, no way.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this story.
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