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

Source: CBS News

Updated on: May 13, 2026 / 7:17 AM EDT


Just eight days after returning to the White House last year, President Trump announced plans to turn the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a massive detention center to hold 30,000 detainees facing deportation as part of his aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration. But a CBS News review of internal government documents and information provided to Congress shows the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay are sitting mostly empty over a year later, even though the highly publicized operation is projected to cost the American military over $70 million.

On May 11, the U.S. government was holding just six immigration detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, all of them nationals of Haiti, according to federal documents obtained by CBS News.

Over the past year, the documents show, 832 immigration detainees have been transferred to the base on more than 100 flights. In fact, there are significantly more government employees assigned to the immigration detention operation at Guantanamo than detainees, according to the documents. This week, government employees outnumbered detainees roughly 100 to 1. Figures provided to Congress indicate the Department of Defense has 522 personnel to assist with immigration detention at Guantanamo.

The internal federal documents show there are around 60 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and non-military staff assigned to the mission, too. Information provided by the Department of Defense to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in April also shows the Guantanamo immigration detention effort is expected to cost $73 million, just for the U.S. military. That is an increase from the previously publicly reported estimate of $40 million.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-guantanamo-bay-migrants/