US President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of a migrant detention facility in Guantanamo Bay which he said would hold as many as 30,000 people.
He said the facility at the US Navy base in Cuba, which would be separate from its high-security military prison, would house “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people”.
Trump’s announcement came as he signed the so-called Laken Riley Act into law, which requires undocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.
The bill, named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan migrant, was approved by Congress last week, an early legislative win for the administration.
At a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Trump said the new Guantanamo executive order would instruct the Departments of defense and homeland security to “begin preparing” the 30,000-bed facility.
“Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back,” he said of migrants. “So we’re going to send them to Guantanamo… it’s a tough place to get out.”
According to Trump, the facility will double the US capacity to hold undocumented migrants.
Guantanamo Bay has long been used to house immigrants, a practice that has been criticized by some human rights groups.
Trump’s “border tsar” Tom Homan said the existing facility there would be expanded and run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
He said the migrants could be transported there directly after being intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard, and that the “highest” detention standards would be applied.
It is unclear how much the facility will cost or when it will be completed.
Cuba’s government swiftly condemned the plan, accusing the US of torture and illegal detention on “occupied” land.
