What is Guantanamo Bay? What to know as Trump plans to open detention center to migrants

As President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act Wednesday, he announced that he is directing the opening of a detention center inside of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold tens of thousands of migrants living illegally inside the U.S.

"Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them, because we don't want them coming back. So we're going to send them out to Guantanamo," Trump said.

Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Wednesday instructing the Department of Defense and and the Department of Homeland Security to begin preparations on the facility at Guantanamo Bay, which has been used to hold terrorist suspects since the 9/11 attacks.

The memorandum said the Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay would be used to “provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States.”

Here's what you need to know about Guantanamo Bay.

What is Guantanamo Bay?

Naval Station Guantanamo Bay has been used by the U.S. since 1898, when U.S. forces used the area in the Spanish-American War.

According to the Navy, a lease for 45 square miles of land and water at Guantanamo Bay was signed in 1903 between the U.S. and Cuba. Three decades later, a treaty signed in 1934 between the two countries, which reaffirmed the lease and added a requirement to end the lease.

“Termination of the lease requires the consent of both the U.S. and Cuban governments or the U.S. abandonment of the base property,” the Navy said.

The Cuban Revolution in the 1950s led the U.S. to cut diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961. Due to this, water and supply avenues were cut by the Cuban government in 1964, the Navy said.

Since then, the Navy says the naval station is completely self-sufficient with its own sources for water and power.

Guantanamo Bay been under criticism for years

The base has been the center of criticism and potential closure for decades. Former President Barack Obama signed a directive in 2016 to close the facility that was the subject of attacks from human rights groups since the George W. Bush administration opened it in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"Guantanamo continues to uphold a legacy of torture, indefinite detention, Islamophobia, and injustice. Detainees in Guantanamo are held without charges or fair trials, violating the US Constitution and depriving them of their basic human rights," Amnesty International said in 2024.

Obama was never able to completely close the facility, partly because congressional Republicans blocked efforts to move particularly dangerous detainees who were considered future terrorist threats.

Bush moved nearly 500 detainees out of Guantanamo Bay to other countries during his time in office, and the Obama administration transferred nearly 200.

In 2018, President Donald Trump, during his first term signed an executive order to keep the base open.

"I am also asking the Congress to ensure that, in the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda, we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists — wherever we chase them down," he said during the 2018 State of the Union.

Contributing: David Jackson, Joey Garrison, Josh Meyer and Francesca Chambers

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Guantanamo Bay? What to know about the base