President Donald Trump has announced plans to expand the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 migrants. Multiplying the current capacity of less than 200 by a factor of over 150. With ICE setting up tents to prepare for the incoming wave of migrants, Trump and his administration are moving fast to enact this unprecedented move. 

Guantanamo Bay Detention Center, also known as GITMO, is one of the most infamous places in modern American history. A military prison located in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, the place was opened in 2002 to hold prisoners of war during the War on Terror. Since then it has been home to countless human rights violations. 

The migrant facility on Guantanamo Bay has been historically used for people the U.S finds out at sea, such as in 1991 when the U.S held Haitians fleeing from a reign of terror in Haiti. Now, Trump is planning to use this facility to hold immigrants who he believes can’t be trusted being deported to other countries for risk of their return. 

“President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst,” said Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.

As Trump brings in his first wave of people into the prisons, 10 people from Venezuelan crime group Tren de Aragua, there are many concerns regarding the logistics of this plan that are seemingly being left unaddressed. 

The standard of living for prisoners in the facility are already incredibly poor for the low capacity it currently has. With few buildings for prisoners to be in, only being provided tents that leak water for shelter, and only one hospital that can’t possibly provide healthcare to all the detainees has led to many prison riots and hunger strikes protesting their conditions. 

Guantanamo Bay is also currently the most expensive prison in the world. Currently costing American taxpayers $445 million dollars annually, around $29,000 per prisoner. For prisoners in the maximum security cells the cost is around $1 million dollars per day.

Add in the additional costs for an extra 30,000 prisoners for electricity, water, and hospitals, the cost of this plan may quickly reveal itself to be unfeasible to accomplish.

The problem of cost is further exacerbated by the fact that these prisoners could be held for a very long time. Currently, the suspected man behind the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for over 24 years and has still never had a court case. 

With the large number of people planned to be held at this facility, it may prove impossible to provide every prisoner with their full legal rights provided to them by the Constitution.

“This has been a consistent pattern over and over again. Shortsighted policymakers think they found a solution, and they have ended up creating a problem for which they have no exit strategy. That’s exactly what they’re doing again,” said Harold Hongju Koh, a lawyer who has been fighting for the freedom of Guantanamo Bay detainees since 2005.

Despite the plan on paper being doomed to fail, the Trump administration’s attempts to go forward with this plan will still cause real and immense harm to the people that will be endangered by his actions.

Guantanamo Bay has long been seen as a legal black hole for past administrations. Being off of American soil and outside of Cuba’s legal jurisdiction has led to past presidents treating the prison as a place where its detainees can be treated however they see fit without fear of consequence.

Trump using a prison known for treating its prisoners as below human and not worth providing the basic necessities for a decent standard of living sends a concerning message regarding how the president views immigrants. 

Justifying these terrible conditions under the guise of trying to contain the “worst of the worst” is only to set a precedent for this type of treatment, as the definition of what the worst looks like grows larger and broader.

As the 23 year long push to close Guantanamo Bay’s prison doors continues, Trump looks to continue to add to the place’s long and dark legacy.