President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to hold “criminal aliens” at the Guantánamo Bay detention center, sparking outrage from some foreign leaders and of course the American left.
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” he said at a news briefing. “Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantánamo.”
Listen:
(Video Credit: CNN)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later confirmed to CNN that Guantanamo would only be used to house “the worst of the worst.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also offered confirmation, writing in a tweet that Guantanamo will be used for “high-priority criminal aliens.”
“The @DeptofDefense — in conjunction with @DHSgov — will immediately expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (‘Gitmo’) to Full Capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens we have deported,” he tweeted.
He went on to add that this isn’t new — that former presidents, namely Bill Clinton, have also used Guantanamo to house illegal aliens.
Look:
The @DeptofDefense — in conjunction with @DHSgov — will immediately expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (“Gitmo”) to Full Capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens we have deported.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) January 30, 2025
Gitmo has been used for DECADES, including under Democrat presidents like Bill Clinton, to temporarily house migrants. This is not the detention facilities (where I served) for Al Qaeda; this is using specific facilities for migrants/illegals on other parts of the naval station.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) January 30, 2025
Speaking later with Fox News, Hegseth stressed that Guantanamo will serve as just a temporary stop for illegals headed out of the country.
“This is a temporary transit, which is already the mission of naval station Guantanamo Bay, where we can plus up thousands and tens of thousands if necessary, to humanely move illegals out of our country where they do not belong, back to the countries where they came from in the proper process,” he said.
“This is a plan in movement, but not in movement because we’re behind, but because we’re ramping up for the possibility to expand mass deportations because President Trump is dead serious about getting illegal criminals out of our country. And the DOD is not only willing to, it’s proud to partner with DHS to defend the sovereignty of our southern border and advance that mission,” he added.
FLASHBACK: Bill Clinton detained 30,000 Cuban migrants in Guantanamo Bay – the same number Trump plans to house there. Fun fact? The Cubans Clinton sent there weren’t criminals, the ones Trump is sending are ALL dangerous criminal aliens. pic.twitter.com/QK9o2JJ0U6
— @amuse (@amuse) January 30, 2025
The outrage meanwhile started with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who called the move an “act of brutality.”
“In an act of brutality, the new US government announces the imprisonment at the Guantanamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied territory [Cuba], of thousands of migrants that it forcibly expels, and will place them next to the well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” he wrote in Spanish in a Twitter/X post.
Over on Twitter/X, leftists followed up by accusing Trump of setting up a “concentration camp.”
How do I convince these dumb asses that holding 30,000+ people in Guantanamo bay indefinitely without due process is literally the definition of running a concentration camp
— Verona Street Melodrama (@ScottMelonball) January 30, 2025
30,000 human beings are going to be “detained” in Guantanamo Bay by the United States government.
Days after Holocaust Remembrance Day. This is what we are doing.
I’m going to throw up.
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) January 29, 2025
Also known as a concentration camp. Yet no dissent. No courageous political leader willing to stand up to this. https://t.co/5RFRW4CPBp
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) January 29, 2025
FYI, the “human beings” to be detained at Guantanamo will include rapists and murderers — two of the left’s favorite types of people.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his part posted on Twitter/X late Wednesday that he’s “happy to send flights from Florida down that way with deportees in tow.”
Happy to send flights from Florida down that way with deportees in tow…. https://t.co/GZNjU1m9oI
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 29, 2025
“I do think they’re gonna use Guantánamo Bay for [an] illegal alien processing site and then they’ll repatriate from their own country from there,” he told podcaster Dave Rubin on Tuesday. “What better state to take advantage of that than the state of Florida.”
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