President Trump has signed an executive order to set up a 30,000-person facility for undocumented migrants in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Donald Trump said the facility – which is separate to the high-security US military prison also located there – will be used to house "criminal illegal aliens" that are deemed to pose a public safety risk in the US.
Cuba’s government swiftly condemned the announcement, accusing the US of torture and illegal detention on "occupied" land on the island.
The US administration’s new border tsar, Tom Homan, said that an existing migrant detention centre at the base would be expanded amid an increase in migrant detentions and deportations during the Trump administration.
Trump’s announcement came as he signed an Act into law requiring undocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial.
The US has already been using a facility in Guantanamo – known as the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center – for decades. In a 2024 report, the International Refugee Assistance Project accused the US government of secretly holding migrants there in "inhumane" conditions indefinitely after detaining them at sea.
Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Sarah Smith in Washington.
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