US to set up Migrant Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay

Donald Trump, President of the United States of America has signed an executive order to build a 30,000-bed migrant detention facility at the American Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has denounced the move and called it an act of brutality.

The latest order of Donald Trump is the latest in a series of controversial decisions taken by him after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on 20 January 2025. 

On his first day as President, he signed an order for the withdrawal of the United States from the  World Health Organisation, stopping foreign aid to countries except Egypt and Israel for the next 90 days.

Stopping illegal migrants has been one of the major policy planks of the Donald Trump initiative to Make America Great Again (MAGA).

Implementation of the Laken Riley Act 

The announcement of the setting up of a detention center in Guantanamo Bay was made after Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley bill passed by the United States Congress (legislature) into an act.

The Act, named after Laken Riley - a Georgia nursing student murdered last year by a Venezuelan man, provides for jailing undocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes pending trial.

Guantanamo Bay Detention Center 

The United States Navy maintains its base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

At present, it holds high-security military prisons where leaders of Al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist leaders captured in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places by the United States are kept.

It also houses a separate detention center known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (GMOC)  where migrants from Cuba and Haiti caught attempting to enter the United States illegally in the sea are kept.

 The US government used to keep migrants attempting to enter the United States through sea.

This facility will be expanded to host 30,000 illegal criminal migrants.

It will be managed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department of the United States of America.

About Guantanamo Bay 

The Guantanamo Bay belongs to Cuba but was leased to the United States government as per the 1903 treaty. Under this treaty, the United States can maintain its military base in the region as long as it desires.

After the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba, the Cuban government is opposed to the American presence in the country and has periodically threatened to seize the American Naval base.

Guantanamo Bay is used by the United States Navy as a fleet training base in the Caribbean Sea.

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