Trump promised to hold 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo. A year later, it's mostly empty.

Key Points:

• President Trump announced plans in early 2025 to transform the Guantanamo Bay military base into a large detention center for 30,000 immigration detainees, but over a year later, the facilities remain mostly empty with only six detainees held as of May 11.
• Internal government documents reveal the operation has cost the U.S. military over $70 million, with more government personnel (over 580) assigned to the detention effort than detainees, outnumbering them roughly 100 to 1.
• The base's actual capacity for immigration detainees is around 400 beds, far below the announced 30,000, and on May 11, less than 2% of these beds were occupied.
• The legality of detaining civil immigration detainees at Guantanamo is being challenged in court, with a federal judge ruling the practice "impermissibly punitive" and likely unlawful, while critics call the operation costly political theater without clear policy benefits.
• Officials have used Guantanamo to hold both high-risk detainees and low-risk migrants, with the detention effort criticized for its financial burden and questioned effectiveness as a deterrent to illegal immigration.