President Donald Trump originally planned to send tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants to Guantánamo Bay. As of June 2025, about 500 of these new inmates were in the camp.
Members of a Congressional committee who toured Guantánamo Bay in March 2025 said the camp had facilities to hold about 200 prisoners at any one time, and that so far, about 500 undocumented immigrants had moved in and out of the facility. They also learned that the average daily cost of holding a migrant at Guantánamo is about $100,000. For comparison, it costs about $165 a day to keep a migrant in ICE detention in the U.S.
“I think that’s kind of outrageous,” said one of the delegates who toured Guantánamo, Democratic Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, speaking at a congressional hearing in May. “And we fly them down there, we keep them there a while, then we fly them back to the United States. Man, this is like ripe for DOGE. Why is DOGE not down there?”
“On the day that I visited, there were 87 people in custody, and my understanding is that’s a pretty normal number,” he added.
Guantánamo Bay Through the Years
Like other overseas American colonies, Guantánamo Bay is steeped in controversy. Unlike these other places, Guantánamo Bay is only an “overseas” colony in the strictest sense of the word. Therefore, controversies occur on America’s doorstep, not in some faraway place.
When Christopher Columbus sailed again the deep blue sea in 1493, he and his cohorts spent the night at a place he named Puerto Grande. What was later named Fisherman’s Point and Guantánamo Bay changed hands several times until the Spanish-American War in 1898. That’s where we get interested.
Guantánamo Bay was one of America’s first military targets, so the Navy would have a safe harbor during the hurricane season. The Treaty of Paris, which ended that war, essentially gave the U.S. the right to decide what to do with Cuba, as the Spanish formally relinquished control of this island in that treaty.
Eventually, the U.S. decided to make most of the island a “protectorate” except for the valuable Guantánamo Bay. In 1901, Congress added an obscure rider (the Platt Amendment) to an Army appropriations bill. It required Cuba to “sell or lease” territory necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points.”
Two years later, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and Cuban President Jose M. Garcia-Montes agreed on a permanent Guantánamo Bay lease. “Agreed” may be a relative term, because the lease was essentially a take-it-or-leave-it contract of adhesion. The Cubans could not say no to the deal if they wanted to.
Since then, the U.S. has faithfully made all rent payments. Since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, the Cubans have not deposited any of those checks. Supposedly, they are all stuffed in a drawer at an obscure office in Havana.
Cold War tensions around Guantánamo Bay were high, to say the least. In 1961, the U.S. mined part of the “Cactus Curtain” that separates Guantánamo Bay from Cuba proper, and the Cubans mined the area as well. President Bill Clinton ordered the area dismantled, but the Cuban minefield remains. Over the years, landmine explosions have killed about a dozen people, mostly engineers and late-night partiers.
In the 1990s, U.S. commanders sent Haitian migrants fleeing the brutal Duvalier regime to Guantánamo Bay. That project worked so well, or so they thought, that they expanded the prison camp. The number of terrorism detainees swelled to over 500 under President George W. Bush. Two of his successors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, promised to close the camp. They did not do so, but they did lower the number of prisoners to approximately 15.
Contractors at Guantánamo Bay
Trump’s detention plan would essentially take Guantánamo Bay back in time to the 1990s, when it housed foreign immigrants of questionable character. If that happens, the hundreds of private military contractors currently stationed at Guantánamo Bay will have three main jobs.
Security contractors guard prisoners. Many regular servicemembers believe that guard duty is a form of punishment. Additionally, due to Guantánamo Bay’s checkered past that involves abusive guards, many regular servicemembers would rather avoid the limelight.
But private military contractors embrace such responsibilities. Many are former law enforcement officers who are used to watching potential bad guys. Furthermore, many contractors are on short deployments. People can take almost anything for about two or three months, especially if they get large paychecks.
As a side note, contractors make a lot of money because they have no benefits and no job security. If asked, most contractors would gladly sacrifice some or most of their checks for a little job security or a few benefits.
Construction contractors also maintain and renovate facilities. Lack of proper facilities was one major Guantánamo Bay gripe during the War on Terror. No one, on either side of the bars, wants a repeat of those episodes.
Some construction contractors guard prisoners, and others maintain the Cactus Curtain. As mentioned, President Clinton ordered the Marines to dig up the mines. The Marines replaced the minefield with a system of motion detectors and cameras. Somebody has to sit for long periods of time to watch TV monitors and respond to alarms. Contractors usually know the nature of the deployment (e.g., watching security monitors) before they board the plane. So, there’s no discontent, or at least little discontent.
Security contractors are also on active duty at Guantánamo Bay. They station checkpoints to verify IDs and otherwise patrol the area in a semi-menacing fashion.
Injury Compensation Available
On a map, Cuba may be less than 100 miles from Florida. But to a seriously injured fall or other victim, Cuba might as well be 100,000 miles away from a large American hospital. Aid stations at Guantánamo Bay stabilize victims for transportation, but that’s about it. A Defense Base Act lawyer obtains compensation for medical bills reasonably related to such injuries, including:
- Transportation: Carrying an injured victim from the scene of an injury to a nearby aid station costs almost nothing. Transporting that victim to Miami or another large stateside city could cost more than $40,000. These victims need the fastest available transportation. You cannot put them on the slow boat to anywhere.
- Emergency Care: As the minutes tick away on a medevac airplane, the victim’s injuries worsen. As a result, medical care must be more aggressive and is more expensive. Defense Base Act lawyers work to ensure that the insurance company covers the additional cost.
- Follow-Up Care: More intensive initial treatment usually means more intensive follow-up treatment. For example, if doctors use metal pins to surgically reconstruct Jaon’s broken ankle, they must surgically remove the pins, not just saw off a cast. The same principles apply to physical therapy.
Usually, injured contractors can choose their own doctors and switch physicians at any time during the course of treatment.
For more information about DBA medical benefits, contact Barnett, Lerner, Karsen, Frankel & Castro, P.A.