Despite the best attempts by Presidents Obama and Biden to close Guantánamo Bay, it remains open. And President Trump had an idea. What if we sent some of the worst criminal illegal aliens there?

President Trump made this announcement during the signing of his first piece of legislation, the Laken Riley Act. This overdue measure, which passed Congress with bipartisan support, will not bring back Laken Riley, or Jocelyn Nungaray, or Rachel Morin, but this, along with the ICE arrests and reinforcement of the southern border, will save future lives. And after these criminals are found, why shouldn’t they go to Gitmo as they wait to be repatriated – or just stay put there?

Trump has promised to drastically increase deportations, but he also said at the signing that some of the people being sent back to their home countries couldn’t be counted on to stay there.

“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 ’em out to Guantanamo,” Trump said. He said that he’d direct federal officials to get facilities in Cuba ready to receive immigrant criminals.

“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal aliens threatening the American people,” the president said.

The White House announced a short time later that Trump had signed a presidential memorandum on Guantanamo. Migrant rights groups quickly expressed dismay.

“Guantanamo Bay’s abusive history speaks for itself and in no uncertain terms will put people’s physical and mental health in jeopardy,” Stacy Suh, program director of Detention Watch Network, said in a statement.

Trump said the move would double U.S. detention lockup capacities, and Guantanamo is “a tough place to get out of.”

The memo from President Trump reads:

I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.

Oh, and that migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay? It’s been used before – by one President Bill Clinton.

FLASHBACK: Bill Clinton detained 30,000 Cuban migrants in Guantanamo Bay – the same number Trump plans to house there. Fun fact? The Cubans Clinton sent there weren’t criminals, the ones Trump is sending are ALL dangerous criminal aliens. pic.twitter.com/QK9o2JJ0U6

— @amuse (@amuse) January 30, 2025

Well, that little factoid is sure to cause some heartburn among the left. Our new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, mentioned that use of Guantánamo during an interview with Fox News.

Newly minted Defense Secretary, @PeteHegseth, joins Primetime. pic.twitter.com/UEBzYOWeUN

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 30, 2025

“Guantánamo Bay, Jesse, is a perfect spot,” Hegseth said in an interview on Fox News’s “Jesse Waters Reports.”

“We don’t want illegal criminals in the United States any— not a minute longer than they have to be,” he continued. “Move them off to Guantánamo Bay, where they can be safely maintained until they are deported to their final location, their country of origin, where they are headed.”

The memo Trump signed directs the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prepare a 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay, a facility in Cuba that has been used to house military prisoners, including several involved in the 9/11 attacks.

Asked whether Guantánamo Bay can accommodate 30,000 people, Hegseth said, “Absolutely we can. And we can plus that up very rapidly.”

Hegseth noted that he served at Guantánamo Bay and is familiar with areas that can house 30,000 migrants. He also said that the military prison “has long been a place for migrants,” adding, “In fact, in the 90s, tens of thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants staged there as part of a crisis.”

“We have an even bigger crisis on our hands right now,” Hegseth added.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that Gitmo would be used for the very bad guys.
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1884727180732584165
Noem has an idea of what “the worst of the worst” looks like – she joined ICE in New York City on Tuesday morning to witness some arrests, including a Venezuelan gang leader. The sheer numbers that are being processed by ICE at the moment (which can be tracked through their X account) are going to eventually add up to some very big numbers. We need a place to put people. These illegals are not entitled to stay in the United States, and if so warranted, why not place them at Guantánamo Bay?

The fact that ICE is arresting hundreds of people a day at the moment, and they aren’t having to hunt very hard for them, means two things. One, we have a VERY big problem with illegal criminals in this country, and few people up until now were willing to point out the breadth and scope of just how many criminals were here. Two, the Biden-Harris administration allowed this, and did nothing to stop it. It turns out that saying “do not come” and then leaving the back door wide open doesn’t work. What does work? Arresting criminals, and either deporting them or locking them up.

Gitmo sounds like it can be prepared in short order. I hope the criminal illegals waiting to be repatriated (if they can be, I’m not sure Venezuela is going to want their Tren de Aragua gang members back) enjoy their stay in Cuba.

Featured image: Guantanamo Bay Camp Justice sign, taken on January 10, 2011 by Petty Officer First Class David P. Coleman, public domain work of the United States Navy