Dear Friends,
CEDA strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s memorandum instructing the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon to expand Guantánamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for migrants. The US naval base at Guantánamo Bay is a legal black hole where due process and human rights protections are absent. This deeply troubling and unprecedented proposal violates fundamental human rights, exacerbates regional tension, and sets a dangerous precedent for migration governance.
CEDA has previously denounced US detention practices at Guantánamo Bay following the alarming findings in an International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) report, which revealed systematic abuses, indefinite detention, and the lack of legal safeguards for migrants held at the facility.
The president’s announcement included a figure of 30,000 individuals held at the base – 0.002 percent of the undocumented population in the US. The move would not only cause mass suffering for individuals and families held – it will be costly and ineffective. Currently, the Guantánamo Bay migrant operations center costs US taxpayers $540 million annually, and this figure will likely increase under expanded detention operations.
CEDA urges US legislators to oppose this measure and demand that migration management policies be rooted in dignity, legality, and regional cooperation—not isolation and dehumanization.
