Trump Says He’s Ordering Massive Detention Camp Built at Guantanamo Bay

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday he will sign an executive order authorizing the construction of a massive detention camp to hold migrants at Guantanamo Bay.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, former President George W. Bush established a military prison at Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold “enemy combatants” captured by U.S. soldiers. Former President Barack Obama vowed to close Gitmo (as it is sometimes called), but failed to do so. On Wednesday, Trump announced he intends to expand the facility to include room for 30,000 migrants apprehended in the U.S.

Trump spoke at a bill signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, which mandates the detention of undocumented migrants who are merely accused of committing crimes, whether they are violent or petty in nature. The legislation is named for a former Augusta University student who was murdered in 2022 by a migrant who was in the country illegally.

“They’re gonna all take them back and they’re gonna like it too,” Trump said, referring to countries to where he will deport undocumented migrants. “They’re gonna like it. 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. Most people don’t even know about it. We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

As he had done during his presidential campaign, Trump invoked the term “migrant crime” and said it was “an unforced error that we even have to be doing this now. We need Congress to provide full funding for the complete and total restoration of our sovereign borders, as well as financial support to remove record numbers of illegal aliens.”

Watch above via CNN.