Trump promised to hold 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo. A year later, it’s mostly empty.
Politics – CBSNews.com — 2026-05-13 05:08:00 — www.cbsnews.com
Just eight days after returning to the White House last year, President Trump announced plans to turn the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a massive detention center to hold 30,000 detainees facing deportation as part of his aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration. However, a CBS News review of internal government documents reveals that the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay are largely empty over a year later, despite the operation being projected to cost the American military over $70 million.
As of May 11, the U.S. government was holding just six immigration detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, all of whom are nationals of Haiti, according to federal documents obtained by CBS News. Over the past year, 832 immigration detainees have been transferred to the base on more than 100 flights. Notably, there are significantly more government employees assigned to the immigration detention operation at Guantanamo than there are detainees; this week, government employees outnumbered detainees roughly 100 to 1. Figures provided to Congress indicate that the Department of Defense has 522 personnel assisting with immigration detention at Guantanamo, along with around 60 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and non-military staff.
Mr. Trump stated in January 2025 that officials would set up 30,000 detention beds at Guantanamo. However, internal federal documents indicate that the base’s capacity to hold immigration detainees is limited to roughly 400 beds, with fewer than 2% of those beds occupied as of May 11.
The documents shed light on the controversial and largely secretive effort to hold civil immigration detainees at Guantanamo, a facility that has gained infamy for the indefinite detention of post-9/11 terrorism suspects amid allegations of abuse, due process violations, and torture. In a statement to CBS News, Senator Elizabeth Warren accused President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of “wasting billions in taxpayer funds on a cruel immigration agenda.”
Publicly, the Trump administration has released scant details about its operation to hold those awaiting deportation at the Guantanamo base, which sits on Cuban land that the U.S. has long argued is being leased. The Cuban government alleges the arrangement is illegal.
Before the second Trump administration, the U.S. government, under both Republican and Democratic presidents, used Guantanamo to house some migrants intercepted at sea, including tens of thousands of Haitians during the Clinton administration. However, in February 2025, officials began sending groups of detainees arrested by ICE in the U.S. to Guantanamo for detention pending their deportation. Initially, Mr. Trump and his top aides vowed to send the “worst” detainees and “high-priority criminal aliens” to Guantanamo, but subsequent reporting found that this was not entirely accurate. CBS News revealed that Guantanamo was being used to hold both migrants with alleged gang or criminal histories and detainees categorized as “low-risk” due to a lack of serious criminal records.
The legality of detaining civil immigration detainees at Guantanamo is still being litigated. In December, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found in a preliminary ruling that the immigration detention effort at Guantanamo was “impermissibly punitive” and likely unlawful, but stopped short of blocking the operation. Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who filed the lawsuit, stated that “the use of Guantanamo is nothing more than political theater like so many other administration policies.” He added, “Not only is the Trump administration’s use of Guantanamo unprecedented and illegal, but it serves no legitimate policy goal given the financial and logistical burdens of using this notorious military base for immigration purposes.”
Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS immigration official under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, noted that the Trump administration established Guantanamo and other controversial facilities, such as “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, to push people in the U.S. illegally to self-deport and deter others from entering the country unlawfully. She remarked that Guantanamo’s deterrence effect is difficult to measure, but it is clear that the operation has been costly, stating, “Everything has to be shipped in there, right? It’s not like we’re importing things from Cuba. Everything has to come from a U.S. source to that military installation. It’s going to be much, much more expensive.”
### How this sits against verifiable accuracy
President Trump claimed that the U.S. would establish a detention center at Guantanamo Bay capable of holding 30,000 detainees. However, internal documents indicate that the actual capacity is limited to approximately 400 beds, with fewer than 2% occupied as of May 11. This discrepancy raises questions about the feasibility and execution of Trump’s stated plans.
### Targets and tone
The excerpt includes remarks from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who accused President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of “wasting billions in taxpayer funds on a cruel immigration agenda.” This statement reflects a critical tone towards Trump and his administration’s immigration policies.
In summary, the plans for Guantanamo Bay as a detention center have not materialized as promised, with significant discrepancies between Trump’s statements and the current reality of the facility’s operations.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-guantanamo-bay-migrants/