Trump latest: President says he will open migrant detention centre at Guantanamo Bay – after White House U-turns on funding pause memo – Sky News

Donald Trump says he is directing the opening of a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 undocumented migrants. It comes as the White House withdraws a federal funding freeze memo after widespread uproar and confusion. Listen to our daily Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 29 January 2025 23:22, UK
We’re taking a pause with our coverage but we’ll be back tomorrow with more updates from the US.
Before we go, here is what you need to know: 
An update on President Trump’s announcement about using Guantanamo Bay to house illegal migrants.
The president’s comments, which were unexpected, suggested that he was ordering some sort of facility to indefinitely detain people who can’t or won’t be sent home. This raises huge legal and moral questions.
The president said: “We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad, we don’t even trust the countries to hold them, because we don’t want them coming back. So we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo.”
However, since then, the new defence secretary, Pete Hegseth has provided some clarity, appearing to present a different plan to the one Trump described.
Speaking on Fox News, Hegseth said: “We want somewhere else to hold them safely in the interim, criminal illegals. Guantanamo Bay is a perfect place. 
“I served there from 2004 to 2005. Americans think of Gitmo as the images you see on your screen right – the detention facilities with folks from the Taliban and al Qaeda. 
“The other part of Guantanamo Bay is a naval station where it has long been for decades, a mission of that naval station is to provide for migrants and refugees and resettlement.
“This is a temporary transit which is already the mission of Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, where we can plus up thousands and tens of thousands, if necessary, to humanely move illegals out of our country where they do not belong, back to the countries where they came from, in proper process.”
Rather different from the president’s plan.
The official memorandum on the opening of a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay has been signed by Donald Trump.
The memorandum directs the secretary of defence and the secretary of Homeland Security to “take all appropriate actions” to expand the centre to “full capacity”.
This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty,” the document reads.
Earlier, Trump said he was directing the opening of a detention centre in Cuba to hold up to 30,000 migrants in the US.
The US military base has been used to house detainees from the US war on terrorism.
During his hearing, Robert F Kennedy Jr cracked a joke about Donald Trump.
“I don’t want to take food away from anybody,” Kennedy said. 
“If you like McDonald’s cheeseburgers, which my boss loves, you should be able to get them.”
You can watch his comments here…
We reported earlier on Donald Trump’s announcement he will direct the opening of a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 undocumented migrants.
The announcement came after Trump pledged that his administration will carry out the largest mass deportation effort in US history. 
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci – who briefly served under the previous Trump administration – has responded with the following…
Former US Senator Bob Menendez has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of cash and gold bars and serving as an agent of Egypt as he sold influence to businessmen eager to exploit his political power.
US District Judge Sidney H Stein announced the sentence after Menendez, 71,tearfully addressed the court, saying he had lost everything he cared about, except for his wife.
“You were successful, powerful, you stood at the apex of our political system,” the judge said.
“Somewhere along the way, and I don’t know when it was, you lost your way and working for the public good became working for your good.”
Prosecutors had requested a 15-year prison term for the Democrat, who was convicted of multiple charges including acting as an agent for Egypt for selling his once-considerable clout in Washington for bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Given a chance to speak before he was sentenced, Menendezbroke down several times as he described his accomplishments
“You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence,” Menendeztold Stein as he stood before him with his hands in his pockets, except when he wiped his face with a tissue.
“Your honour, I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions,” he added.
“I’ve done far more good than bad. I ask you, your honour, to judge me in that context.”
Guantanamo Bay is infamous. 
A strip of land on the Cuban coast – leased in perpetuity from Cuba since 1903.
It’s the site of a notorious US military prison where detainees were taken and held after the September 11 attacks.
It has become synonymous with the US “war on terror”, with CIA rendition, with torture and with orange jumpsuits.
Beyond the prison (which only has 15 inmates remaining) the site houses a US naval base and a small migrant holding centre – used at the moment to hold migrants who are intercepted at sea trying to reach America.
President Trump’s announcement that he has ordered the Department of Defence to prepare “Gitmo”, as it’s called, to house many more migrants is unexpected.
30,000 beds represents a colossal facility. 
It is not clear, yet, whether the migrants to be held here will be those intercepted or those rounded up in the US to be deported.
The numbers of migrants currently crossing into the US are very low and the numbers being rounded up are high – this gives an indication of who could be housed there.
In fulfilling its immigration mass deportation pledge, the White House is likely to be faced with significant logistical challenges with holding facilities.
The optics of using Guantanamo to house deported migrants is stark – reflective of the hardline policy being pursued by Trump.
Donald Trump has said he is directing the opening of a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 migrants who are living illegally in the US.
“Today I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000 person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay,” Trump said.
“Most people don’t even know about it.”
Trump made the announcement just before signing the Laken Riley Act into law.
There are currently 15 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, according to US defence department.
The detention facility at Guantanamo Bay was set up in 2002 by then-US President George W Bush to detain foreign militant suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks.
But the facility for migrants is separate from the detention center on the base.
On Tuesday, the US military said that it would allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain migrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado.
Trump is delivering some words about Laken.
“To Laken’s family, we will keep Laken’s memory alive in our hearts forever,” he says.
“Her name will also live forever in the laws of our country.
“This is a very important law – it’s something that has bought Democrats and Republicans together.”
He goes on to say “America will never forget Laken Hope Riley”.
Donald Trump is about to sign the Laken Riley Act, the first legislation to get his signature since his return to the White House.
The bill is named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man as she went for a run at the University of Georgia campus.
It requires the detention of unauthorised immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.
Before discussing the legislation, the president repeats a seemingly debunked claim made yesterday about his administration blocking $50m worth of condoms being sent to Gaza (see previous post).
He also suggested again that his administration had been responsible for the restoration of tap water in California, following devastating wildfires.
“The water has now begun flowing in California as we continue to increase the flow in coming days,” he said.
“Nobody’s seen anything like that.”
California’s department of water said yesterday that the federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days.
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