President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is directing the opening of a detention center at Guantánamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 of the "worst criminal" migrants who are living illegally in the United States.
The president signed a memorandum to make the direction official on Wednesday afternoon.
President Trump made the announcement right before he signed the Laken Riley Act into law as his administration's first piece of legislation. The bipartisan measure means that people who are in the U.S. illegally and are accused of theft and violent crimes would have to be detained and potentially deported even before a conviction.
A senior White House administrator told Scripps News the administration feels like they are within their legal rights to make it happen.
Also called Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, the facility is a U.S. military detention center located on the coast of Guantánamo Bay in southeastern Cuba constructed in the early 2000s.
It's been notoriously used to house suspected terrorists and became the focus of worldwide controversy in the past over the alleged treatment of detainees.
The White House said Wednesday the expanded facilities would be run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and used "for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs."
Speaking to reporters, border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem both said the facility would house "the worst of the worst."
Cuban government officials immediately criticized the decision.
"The US government’s decision to imprison migrants at the Guantanamo Naval Base, in an enclave where it created torture and indefinite detention centers, shows contempt for the human condition and international law," said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
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President Trump, who won back the White House in part by tapping into public anger over illegal immigration, has made the promised crackdown a centerpiece of his political career and is now suggesting the new law might only be the beginning.
The swift passage of the Laken Riley Act legislation and President Trump's signing nine days after taking office adds to the potent symbolism for conservatives. To critics, the measure has taken advantage of a tragedy and could lead to chaos and cruelty while doing little to fight crime or overhaul the immigration system.
