U.S. Transfers 832 Immigration Detainees to Guantanamo Bay as Operation Costs Reach $73 Million

President Trump announced plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a massive detention center for 30,000 immigration detainees eight days after returning to the White House in 2025. Mr. Trump said in January 2025 that officials would set up 30,000 detention beds at Guantanamo.

But internal federal documents indicate the base's capacity to hold immigration detainees is limited to roughly 400 beds. U.S. government was holding just six immigration detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, all Haitian nationals, according to federal documents obtained by CBS News.

Fewer than 2% of the immigration detention beds at Guantanamo were occupied on May 11. 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 operation roughly 100 to 1 this week.

The Department of Defense has 522 personnel assigned to assist with immigration detention at Guantanamo. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and non-military staff are assigned to the Guantanamo immigration detention mission.

U.S. military $73 million, according to information provided by the Department of Defense to Sen. Elizabeth Warren in April. That figure exceeds the previously publicly reported cost estimate of $40 million.

CBS News reported that the highly publicized operation remains largely secretive more than a year after it began. U.S. to Guantanamo in February 2025 for holding pending deportation.

The base has been used to hold both migrants with alleged gang or criminal histories and detainees categorized as low-risk. In April 2025 CBS News disclosed that an internal government memo gave officials wide-ranging discretion to transfer non-criminal detainees to Guantanamo.

Low-risk immigration detainees are housed at the Migration Operations Center, a barrack-like facility previously used for asylum-seekers intercepted at sea.

High-risk immigration detainees are housed at Camp VI, a section of the post-9/11 prison complex that still holds some terrorism suspects. U.S. government used Guantanamo to house some migrants intercepted at sea, including tens of thousands of Haitians during the Clinton administration.

C. found in a preliminary ruling that the immigration detention effort at Guantanamo was impermissibly punitive and likely unlawful but did not block the operation. Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer, stated that the use of Guantanamo is nothing more than political theater like so many other administration policies.

"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," Gelernt said. Sen. Elizabeth Warren accused President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of wasting billions in taxpayer funds on a cruel immigration agenda.

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