US to send some migrants to Guantanamo Bay

KABUL (Pajhwok): US President Donald Trump will order the preparation of a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for as many as 30,000 migrants, Reuters reported.

Trump's border czar Tom Homan said later on Wednesday the administration would expand the already existing facility, which would be run by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"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 at the White House.

He added the facility would be used 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. This will double our capacity immediately, right? And, tough."

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Homan said the centre would be used for the "worst of the worst."

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asked how much money would be required, said the administration was working on it with reconciliation and appropriators in Congress.

Soon after, Trump signed a memorandum, which did not have a number of migrants in it but called for "additional detention space" at the expanded facility.

sa/mud