Guantanamo Bay Sits Largely Empty Despite Trump Plans To Send 30,000 Immigration Detainees There

Despite plans by President Trump to fill the Guantanamo Bay naval station with as many as 30,000 high-priority migrants with criminal record, the facility remains largely empty, according to a new report.

CBS News detailed that, as of May 11, there were six detainees at the facility. Over the course of the last year, the total number transferred there was 832. There were 100 employees at the facility for every one detainee. Also, the cost of expanding the detention facilities and staffing it had ballooned to more than $70 million.

In the January 2025 directive, Trump ordered the Defense Department and Homeland Security to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay to a capacity of 30,000.

“This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty,” Trump wrote, emphasizing that the new space was needed for high-priority criminal aliens.

Despite the apparent urgency cited in the directive to thwart an “invasion,” CBS News found that Guantanamo’s capacity remains limited to about 400 beds. Of those beds, less than 2 percent were occupied as of May 11.

In March 2025, following the president’s announcement, satellite imagery showed rapid construction of new structures, ostensibly to house detainees, ABC News reported. The network found that between Feb. 2 and Feb. 19, 175 new structures were constructed at the base.

Despite that initial activity and tens of millions of dollars, capacity remains limited and largely unused.

“If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in Guantanamo Bay, CECOT, or a third country. Our message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis told CBS News.

Concern about the cost and effectiveness of using Guantanamo Bay for immigration detention is not new. In a May 2025 hearing, U.S. Senator Gary Peters noted it was costing taxpayers about $100,000 a day per detainee, Reuters reported.

“We’re spending $100,000 a day to keep someone at Guantanamo,” said Peters, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We keep them there awhile, then we fly them back to the United States, or we could keep them here for $165 a day. I think that’s kind of outrageous.”