The Guantanamo Bay military base where Trump promised to house 30,000 migrants is nearly empty, but tens of millions of dollars are being spent on the project.

Just eight days after returning to the White House, Donald Trump announced his intention to convert the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a large detention center. It was originally designed to hold 30,000 people facing deportation. However, the facility remains virtually empty, writes CNBC News.

As of May 11, the US government held only six detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. All were Haitian citizens. Over the past year, according to records, 832 people were transferred to the base on more than 100 flights.

In other words, the number of personnel involved in the migrant detention operation at Guantanamo Bay significantly outnumbers the detainees themselves. This week, the ratio was approximately 100 to 1.

On the subject: Illegals from which countries are sent to Guantanamo: there are now more guards than detainees

According to data provided to Congress, the Department of Defense has deployed 522 personnel to the migrant detention operation at Guantanamo Bay. Internal federal documents indicate that approximately 60 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, as well as civilian personnel, are participating in the mission.

Information released in April by the Defense Department to Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren shows that the Guantanamo Bay operation will cost $73 million for the U.S. military alone, significantly more than the previously reported $40 million.

In January 2025, Trump stated that 30,000 detention beds would be created at Guantanamo. However, internal documents indicate that the base's actual capacity is approximately 400. As of May 11, less than 2% of these beds were occupied.

Together with information released to Congress, the documents shed light on the controversial and largely secretive operation to detain immigrants at Guantanamo Bay, a facility that became infamous after 9/11 for the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects and those accused of abuse, due process violations, and torture.

Warren, who received the estimated spending figures, accused President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.

In a statement released May 13, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Lauren Bies said, "If you enter our country illegally and violate our laws, you could end up in Guantanamo Bay, CECOT [a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. – Approx. Ed.] or in a third country. Our message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States."

The Trump administration has publicly disclosed very few details about the detention operation for migrants awaiting deportation at Guantanamo Bay, a Cuban facility located in Guantanamo Bay in the island's southeast. While the territory remains formally Cuban, the United States uses it under a lease agreement dating back to the early 20th century. Cuba, however, considers this presence illegal and does not recognize the agreement.

The US government under both Republican and Democratic presidents has already used Guantanamo to house some migrants intercepted at sea, including tens of thousands of Haitians during the Clinton administration.

However, in February 2025, authorities began sending groups of detainees arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on US soil to Guantanamo Bay to be held there pending deportation. Initially, Trump and his top aides promised to send the "most dangerous" and "priority criminal aliens" there. However, subsequent investigations have shown this to be untrue.

CBS News previously reported that Guantanamo Bay houses both migrants with suspected ties to criminal groups and individuals classified as "low risk" without serious criminal records. In April 2025, it was revealed that an internal government memorandum gave officials broad discretion over who should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, including the possibility of transferring individuals without criminal records.

Migrants considered "low risk" are housed in the Migration Operations Center, a barracks-style facility previously used to hold asylum seekers intercepted at sea. Those considered "high risk" are held in Camp VI, part of the prison complex established after 9/11, where some terrorism suspects are still held.

The legality of holding civilian immigration detainees at Guantanamo Bay remains the subject of litigation. In December, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in a preliminary ruling that the practice was "excessively punitive" and likely illegal, but did not halt the operation.

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union who filed the lawsuit, said: "The use of Guantanamo is nothing more than a political show, like so many other administration initiatives."

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Teresa Cardinal Brown, a former immigration official at the Department of Homeland Security under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, believes the Trump administration is using Guantanamo Bay and other controversial facilities like the "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida to encourage people in the United States illegally to leave on their own and deter others from entering illegally.

However, it is obvious that the operation is not cheap.

"Absolutely everything needs to be shipped there. We don't get anything from Cuba," Cardinal Brown emphasized. "Everything to that military base has to come from the United States, and that ends up being significantly more expensive."

Read also on ForumDaily:

At the Alligator Alcatraz Detention Center, prisoners are beaten and starved.

ICE officers brutally beat and tortured detained migrants

Trump says he will allow Ukrainians to stay in the US until the war ends

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