Trump’s Plan for Mass Detention at Guantánamo Has Happened Before. It Was a Disaster.

Trump’s Plan for Mass Detention at Guantánamo Has Happened Before. It Was a Disaster.

President Trump announced plans to detain up to 30,000 migrants at the Guantánamo Bay military base. In the 1990s, Haitian kids and teens known as the "ghosts of Guantánamo" were imprisoned at the notorious Camp Nine.

Guantánamo Bay’s forgotten history of detaining Haitian migrants

Haitian migrants, displaced by the 1991 U.S.-backed coup of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, line up at Guantánamo to be processed. Credit: The U.S. National A

Trump’s Guantánamo plan is an old idea — with an ugly history

A group of peace activists gathered in front of the New York Public Library to protest the Guantánamo Bay detention camp on January 11, 2025. | Selçuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images President Donald Trump is looking to vastly expand immigrant detention in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Trump hopes to…