U.S. Transfers 832 Immigration Detainees to Guantanamo Bay Over Past Year

The U.S. government was holding six immigration detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base as of this week, according to internal federal documents reviewed by CBS News. All six were nationals of Haiti. Internal federal documents indicate the base's capacity to hold immigration detainees is limited to roughly 400 beds. Fewer than 2% of those beds were occupied.

Over the past year, 832 immigration detainees have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay on more than 100 flights. Government employees outnumbered detainees at the Guantanamo Bay immigration detention roughly 100 to 1 this week. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and non-military staff are assigned to the mission.

The operation is projected to cost the American military over $70 million, according to a CBS News review of internal government documents and information provided to Congress. That figure is an increase from the previously publicly reported estimate of $40 million.

Days after returning to the White House in January 2025, President Trump said officials would set up 30,000 detention beds at Guantanamo. Detainees considered to be low-risk have been housed at the Migration Operations Center, a barrack-like facility that had previously held asylum-seekers intercepted at sea.

Those deemed to be high-risk immigration detainees have been detained at Camp VI, a section of the post-9/11 prison complex that still holds some terrorism suspects.

In April 2025 CBS News disclosed that the internal government memo governing the operation gave officials wide-ranging discretion to decide who to send to Guantanamo including the ability to transfer non-criminal detainees there. A D.C. court 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.

DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis said: "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in Guantanamo Bay, CECOT, or a third country."

The U.S. government under Republican and Democratic presidents used Guantanamo to house some migrants intercepted at sea including tens of thousands of Haitians during the Clinton administration.