Guantanamo Migrant Operation Houses Six Detainees at $73 Million Cost, Far Below 30,000-Bed Pledge

President Donald Trump announced in January 2025 that his administration would prepare a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay with capacity for 30,000 beds to hold detainees facing deportation. More than a year after that pledge, internal government documents reviewed by CBS News show the U.S. government is holding six immigration detainees at the base, all of them Haitian nationals, while the facility's total immigration detention capacity stands at roughly 400 beds.

The Details

A CBS News review of internal government documents and information provided to Congress reveals the scope of the Guantanamo immigration detention effort as of May 11, 2026. Over the prior twelve months, 832 immigration detainees were transferred to Guantanamo Bay on more than 100 separate flights. As of the May 11 date, only six detainees remained housed at the base.

The documents indicate the base's current immigration detention capacity is approximately 400 beds, a figure that falls far short of the 30,000-bed capacity the administration publicly pledged when it announced the policy in early 2025.

The operation has required a substantial government workforce to oversee a comparatively small detainee population. Figures provided to Congress show the Department of Defense assigned 522 personnel to support the immigration detention mission at Guantanamo. Internal documents show approximately 60 ICE and non-military staff are also assigned to the effort. Combined, government personnel outnumber the current detainee population by roughly 100 to 1.

The military cost of the Guantanamo immigration detention effort has risen significantly above initial projections. Information provided by the Defense Department to Senator Elizabeth Warren showed the operation is expected to cost $73 million for the U.S. military alone. That figure exceeds a previously reported estimate of $40 million, representing a substantial increase in anticipated spending for the detention mission.

Officials have separated detainees by risk classification at the base. Those labeled low-risk have been housed at the Migration Operations Center, while detainees deemed high-risk have been held at Camp VI, a section of the post-9/11 prison complex, according to CBS News. Previous reporting by the network also showed the administration transferred both detainees with alleged gang or criminal histories and detainees classified as low-risk to Guantanamo. An internal memo gave officials broad discretion to transfer non-criminal detainees to the base.

Context

DHS spokeswoman Lauren Bis defended the administration's use of Guantanamo in a statement to CBS News, framing it as part of a broader deterrence strategy. "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in Guantanamo Bay, CECOT, or a third country," Bis said. "Our message is clear: criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S."

The cost and legal foundation of the Guantanamo operation have drawn criticism from outside the administration. Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS immigration official, told CBS News the remote location of the base makes the operation especially expensive to sustain. "Everything has to be shipped in there, right? It's not like we're importing things from Cuba," Cardinal Brown said. "Everything has to come from a U.S. source to that military installation. It's going to be much, much more expensive."

The ACLU has mounted a legal challenge to the practice of holding civil immigration detainees at the military base. Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney working on the litigation, told CBS News, "The use of Guantanamo is nothing more than political theater like so many other administration policies."

A federal judge in Washington issued a preliminary ruling in December 2025 finding that the Guantanamo immigration detention effort was likely unlawful and impermissibly punitive, though the judge did not block the operation from continuing, according to CBS News reporting.

The use of Guantanamo Bay to detain migrants is not without historical precedent. Both Republican and Democratic administrations before Trump's second term housed some migrants intercepted at sea at the base, including many Haitians during the Clinton administration, CBS News reported.

What's Next

Federal litigation challenging the legality of the Guantanamo immigration detention effort remains active following the December 2025 preliminary ruling. The administration continues to hold immigration detainees at the base while the legal challenge proceeds.