The Reinvention of Guantanamo in 2025

In politics, the status quo has enormous power. In 2008, during Obama's first presidential campaign, he promised to close Guantanamo Bay (popularly known as Gitmo). Toward the end of his second administration, he said that what hurt him most was leaving it open. He stated that he “should have closed Guantanamo on the first day.” He maintained that “the path of least resistance was to leave it open.”

Located on the southeastern coast of Cuba, Guantanamo was the place where United States troops made an initial landing during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Soon afterward, the U.S. obtained the base in 1903 through a postwar agreement with Cuba. After the 1991 coup d'etat in Haiti against the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, tens of thousands of people fled Haiti in small boats escaping the Haitian military; some of its leaders had been trained in the U.S. Haitians were detained in Guantanamo, together with Cubans who were also seeking asylum in the United States. Cubans received more favorable treatment, whereas Haitians were instead labeled economic migrants. In 1993, Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered the release of the detained Haitians. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, people suspected of terrorism were once again imprisoned in Guantanamo and subjected to widely criticized torture techniques.

Under the new modalities of detention and deportation during the second Trump Administration, the people who have been the focus of attention for being sent to Guantanamo have been Venezuelans. On February 4, ten Venezuelan men were flown to Guantanamo from El Paso, Texas on a military plane. Before their departure, this group was described as “the worst of the worst,” as if they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, which the Trump administration had designated as a terrorist group. The screening process used to justify this flight was unclear, and the same was true for 168 detained people who were sent there in the weeks that followed. The plan to bring more detainees was reportedly put on pause because the housing did not meet detention standards. It is worth noting that this pause coincided with strategic litigation pursued by the ACLU in the United States. Indeed, by early March, 40 men had been returned from the naval base to the U.S.

They Defy Strategic Litigation

However, on March 20 there was another flight carrying 20 migrants to Guantanamo. In response, on March 24, 20 Democratic members of Congress wrote to the relevant authorities expressing concern about the detention conditions there. They criticized the Trump administration for failing to meet security objectives and for deporting migrants with no criminal record who are “low risk.” They requested clarification on several issues, including details about the individuals detained at that facility, the legal justification for their detention, and their access to legal counsel.

Ultimately, the use of Guantanamo Bay for migration detention is not an option of last resort. On the contrary, it is a costly and unnecessary option. This is because the United States operates the largest immigration detention system in the world and is actively expanding its capacity on its own territory, aiming for 100,000 beds. In addition, the Trump administration has made significant progress in negotiating with countries that had previously been reluctant to accept deported citizens, showing that diplomatic efforts remain a viable solution for repatriation. There is no practical justification for externalizing detainees when the existing tools can achieve the same results more effectively and economically.

This performative distraction cost more than $40 million in its first month, during which it held fewer than 400 people for short periods. This naval base (Gitmo) must be closed once and for all.