A group of shackled prisoners in jail tracksuits lined up last week, waiting to board a transport plane. Their destination was the infamous Guantanamo Bay, reports the Daily Mail.
Guantanamo Bay is a US naval base in Cuba, best known for its high-security prison. It was opened in 2002 to hold terrorism suspects and has been criticised for human rights abuses. The facility still houses detainees, and US President Donald Trump now plans to use it as a holding centre for migrant criminals.
The ten men, all members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, became the first detainees under Trump’s latest crackdown on illegal immigration.
The move has debate, with critics saying the prison is being turned into a migrant detention centre.
‘Worst of the worst’
Trump has announced that up to 30,000 migrants—those classified as ‘the worst criminal aliens’ and ‘hard to deport’—will be sent to Guantanamo. The plan, his administration argues, is designed to prevent dangerous offenders from re-entering the country.
“President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today,” said Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem.
The base already has a small migrant centre for those caught at sea. But under Trump’s plan, thousands will be held in tents, with some possibly sent to the high-security prison still holding 15 terror suspects, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Long-term detention
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that deportees will only be held temporarily. However, Trump has suggested otherwise.
“Some of them are so bad that we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re gonna send them out to Guantanamo,” he said in January.
Noem has also refused to rule out whether women and children could be detained there, raising further concerns.
Rights groups have said that Trump is linking migrants to terrorism, but his administration has denied it. Officials believe Guantanamo’s tough reputation will deter criminal gangs from entering the US illegally.
Prison with a dark history
Guantanamo Bay has been at the centre of global controversy since its establishment in 2002 under George W. Bush. Originally intended to detain suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks, the prison quickly gained notoriety for its harsh treatment of inmates, many held without charge.
At its peak, nearly 700 detainees were kept in extreme conditions, subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’—a term critics equate with torture. Waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and exposure to extreme temperatures were among the methods used.
The facility has also been a costly burden. As of 2019, it cost $440 million annually to operate—roughly $36 million per inmate.
Why has Guantanamo never closed?
Despite promises from past presidents—including Obama, Biden, and even Bush—efforts to shut down the prison have repeatedly failed. Congress has blocked the transfer of detainees to US soil, and few countries are willing to take them.
Earlier this year, Biden transferred 11 Yemeni prisoners to Oman, but 15 detainees remain, including those classified as ‘forever prisoners.’
Trump is taking the prison in a new direction and using it to house migrants instead of terror suspects.
The prison has long operated under a system of military commissions criticised as a ‘legal black hole,’ where detainees have limited rights and face indefinite detention.
Trump has made his position clear. “Guantanamo is a tough place to get out of,” he said.
