Donald Trump announces plan for huge migrant detention centre at notorious Guantanamo Bay | US | News

US President Donald Trump has announced he is preparing a migrant detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

The President said he is planning to open a detention centre at the US military base in Cuba to hold up to 30,000 migrants living illegally in the United States.

Mr Trump said the facility would be used to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.

“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 Guantanmo,” he added. “This will double our capacity immediately, right? And, tough.”

He made the announcement shortly before signing the Laken Riley Act into law as his administration‘s first piece of legislation on Wednesday evening.

The bipartisan measure means that people who are in the US illegally and are accused of theft and violent crimes will have to be detained and potentially deported even before a conviction.

After signing the measure into law, Mr Trump said: “Today I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.

“Most people don’t even know about it.”

Guantanamo Bay was also used as a detention facility in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush to hold those suspected of involvement in the 9/11 attacks as part of America’s war on terrorism.

Currently, there are six never-charged men still being held at Guantanamo, two convicted and sentenced inmates, and seven others charged with the 2001 attacks, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and the 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia.

The president, who returned to the White House on January 20, has made immigration a key issue during the electoral campaign that ended with his re-election in November.

The Laken Riley Act was named after 22-year-old Laken Riley, who went out for a run in February 2024 and was killed by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national who was in the country illegally. Ibarra was found guilty in November and sentenced to life without parole.

“She was a light of warmth and kindness,” Mr Trump said during the signing ceremony that included Riley’s parents and sister. “It’s a tremendous tribute to your daughter what’s taking place today, that’s all I can say. It’s so sad we have to be doing it.”

He added, “It’s a landmark law that we’re doing today. It’s going to save countless lives”.

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