News

President Trump To Use Guantanamo Bay For Illegal Alien Detention

The facility will be used to "detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people," Trump said.

   DailyWire.com
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order directing the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to prepare the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to hold as many as 30,000 criminal illegal aliens.

Trump announced his impending executive order at a signing event for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration security bill named after a 22 year-old victim of an illegal alien murderer. The Guantanamo Bay detention facility, located in Cuba, has historically been used to detain terror suspects. Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order designating cartels as Foreign Terror Organizations.

“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 … 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,” he said of criminal illegal aliens. “We don’t want them coming back so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This is going to double our capacity immediately.”

“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,” Trump’s executive order reads. 

It goes on to add that the memo “is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.”

Trump’s comments came at an event at which the President signed the Laken Riley Act, an immigration bill named after the 22 year-old Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered by an illegal alien from Venezuela last year while she was out for a morning jog.

The legislation will require the detention of illegal aliens charged with theft or violent crimes. The bill received bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. “She’s going to save a lot of lives, she’s going to be responsible for saving a lot of lives,” Trump said to the parents of Riley at the event. He also accused the previous administration of opening America’s borders and allowing “world’s most dangerous criminals straight into” American communities.

Under the Trump administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has set out to capture and repatriate illegal aliens, with a special focus on illegal aliens convicted of other crimes in addition to illegally crossing the border into the United States.

ICE caught several criminal illegal aliens just this Sunday, The Daily Wire reported. Federal immigration enforcement agents caught a member of the MS-13 cartel, the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a man in possession of child pornography, a drug and weapons trafficker, and multiple violent criminals across the country on Sunday.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to provide text of the executive order after it was signed.

Create a free account to join the conversation!

Already have an account?

Log in

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
Download Daily Wire Plus

Don't miss anything

Download our App

Stay up-to-date on the latest
news, podcasts, and more.

Download on the app storeGet it on Google Play
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  President Trump To Use Guantanamo Bay For Illegal Alien Detention