Deborah Akinyosoye
US President Donald Trump unveiled a surprise plan Wednesday to detain thousands of undocumented migrants in Guantanamo Bay, distracting from spiraling confusion after the White House withdrew a shock order to freeze federal funds.
Trump said he had ordered construction of a detention camp to hold up to 30,000 of what he called “criminal illegal aliens” at the notorious military facility on the eastern tip of Cuba, used for holding terrorism suspects since the 9/11 attacks.
The plan intensifies the crackdown on illegal immigration that Trump has pledged in his second term, along with a parallel push to transform the US government itself in his right-wing image.
That broader goal hit a road bump when the White House sparked confusion by withdrawing a memo ordering a halt on trillions of dollars in federal funds only to insist minutes later that Trump’s plan remained in “full force.”
Speaking as he signed a bill at the White House ordering the pre-trial detention of migrants charged with theft or violence, Trump said the Guantanamo plan would “bring us one step closer to eradicating the scourge of migrant crime.”
“We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people,” said the Republican, adding that it would “double our capacity immediately” to hold undocumented migrants.
‘Act of brutality’
The Guantanamo Bay facility currently holds 15 detainees from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other operations triggered by the September 11, 2001, attacks. At its peak around 800 people were incarcerated there, drawing widespread condemnation from human rights campaigners.
Newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News that migrants would not be kept where the remaining 9/11 detainees are and that a golf course could be used to build facilities.
Cuba slammed Trump’s plan as an “act of brutality.”
Numbers of migrants held in US custody could rise dramatically due to the bipartisan bill that Trump signed on Wednesday, the first since his return to the White House.
The Laken Riley Act is named after a 22-year-old US nursing student murdered by a Venezuelan undocumented migrant who was arrested twice before her killing but then released.
“Her name will also live forever in the laws of our country,” Trump told the signing ceremony, which was attended by her parents.
Confusion
Trump’s headline-grabbing Guantanamo announcement came shortly after another White House plan descended into confusion.
As part of his crusade to shrink government and eliminate entire segments, Trump had ordered the freezing late Monday of potentially trillions of dollars in grants and loans for programs including health care for millions of low-income Americans.
The move, made in an order from White House’s Office of Management and Budget, sparked instant alarm and confusion before a US judge issued a temporary injunction.
Following the outcry, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued a terse notification Wednesday saying the freezing of aid order had been “rescinded.”
Soon after, however, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that only the memo from the budget office was rescinded, not Trump’s plan. Other orders signed last week for departments to root out “woke” spending remained operative, she said.
“This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze” which remains in “full force,” she said on X. She said in a separate statement that it had rescinded the memo to “end any confusion” the judge blocked it.
Democrats accuse Trump of constitutional overreach by seeking to stop spending already approved by Congress, which has authority over the US budget.
Trump’s attempt to purge the workforce of officials deemed unsupportive saw another radical move Tuesday when he offered most federal workers the option to leave their jobs in exchange for eight months’ severance.
Trump doubled down Wednesday, announcing that any government employee who fails to end work-from-home and appear in the office by February 6 “will be terminated.”
The administration is also continuing to strip Trump opponents of their security details.
Former top US military officer Mark Milley became the latest, having his security detail and security clearance stripped by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon said.