President Donald Trump is making big moves on immigration. On Wednesday, he shared plans to sign an executive order directing the federal government to get Guantanamo Bay ready to hold up to 30,000 migrants.
Speaking from the White House, Trump explained, “We’re preparing a 30,000-person facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don’t even know about it, but we have the space to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening Americans. This will double our capacity right away.”
His announcement came just before he signed the Laken Riley Act, a new law requiring the detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes. This marks his first major legislative win of his second term.
While details about the executive order are still unclear, Guantanamo Bay is no stranger to handling migrants. Besides its famous detention camp for terrorism suspects, the base has a separate center for processing migrants.
However, experts point out that housing 30,000 people there won’t be easy. A U.S. official shared that the base hasn’t had that kind of capacity since the 1990s. “They’d need a lot more staff to manage that many people,” the official added.
Guantanamo Bay has been used before to help migrants, like during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The Biden administration even considered using it for Haitian migrants fleeing crises last year.