The US detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has been a contentious issue for 25 years, with a history of detaining migrants and terror suspects. The center was initially used to detain individuals suspected of terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. In recent years, it has also been used to hold migrants intercepted at sea. In August 2026, a congressional oversight visit revealed that 852 immigrants had been flown to the facility since January 2025.
The use of Guantánamo for migrant detention predates its role in the war on terror. After the 1991 Haitian coup, the US intercepted thousands of Haitian asylum seekers at sea. In the mid-to-late 1990s, tens of thousands of people fleeing Cuba on makeshift rafts were also detained there. The offshore location allowed the government to circumvent humanitarian and legal protections afforded to asylum seekers.
The migrant operations center at Guantánamo, managed by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department with private contractors, continues to detain migrants intercepted at sea. During Donald Trump's first term, the Department of Homeland Security proposed housing migrant children at the base as a solution to overcrowded immigrant prisons on the US mainland.
At the start of his second term, Trump signed an executive order expanding the migrant operations center to hold up to 30,000 "high-priority criminal aliens." For the first time, immigrants arrested in the US were transferred to Guantánamo for detention. Senator Dick Durbin condemned the administration's policy as "cruel, immoral, and an abuse of taxpayer funding."
The detention of terror suspects at Guantánamo began in 2002, when the first 20 detainees arrived as "enemy combatants," a label that limited their ability to contest their detention and placed them outside the reach of habeas corpus protections. The Bush administration used fear and national trauma after 9/11 to suspend the rule of law and create a space that existed entirely outside of it.
Since its opening, Guantánamo has detained around 780 Muslim men and boys, with the youngest being Omar Khadr, who was 15 years old when detained. Most detainees have never been charged with a crime, and many were kidnapped or captured abroad, transferred from CIA black sites, or sold to US forces by bounty hunters for $3,000 to $25,000.
Guantánamo Bay has become synonymous with human rights abuses under the Bush administration. The Justice Department authorized "enhanced interrogation techniques," including simulated drowning, sleep deprivation, and prolonged isolation, despite long-standing bans on torture under international law. The facility remains a contentious issue, with many calling for its closure.
Key points
- The detention center at Guantánamo Bay has been used to detain both migrants and terror suspects, with a complex history of human rights abuses and controversy.
- The use of Guantánamo for migrant detention has continued under various administrations, with recent expansions to hold up to 30,000 "high-priority criminal aliens."
- The detention center remains a focal point in the war on terror, with many detainees never charged with a crime and concerns about human rights abuses and the rule of law.
