- A Senate Democratic staff inspection found 445 employees assigned to Guantánamo’s immigration-detention operation but no migrants during an August visit.
- The operation cost an estimated $118,000 per person, based on approximately 850 migrants transferred since February 2025.
- The GAO found costly abandoned projects and said ICE still lacked a strategic plan, expected by August 31, 2027.
Senate Democratic staff found 445 government employees assigned to the Guantánamo immigration-detention operation but no migrants there during an August inspection. The operation had cost more than $100 million, the staff report released October 9, 2026, said.
The estimated cost reached $118,000 per person, based on approximately 850 migrants transferred there since February 2025. The calculation captures a small population moving through a heavily staffed operation. Some people stayed for months.
About 23 military personnel guarded migrants on each shift, alongside one ICE officer and two Homeland Security contractors. The report counted 445 government employees assigned to the site, most of them military personnel on temporary deployment.
Sen. Richard J. “Dick” Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, released the findings before a federal-court hearing in Washington. He called the operation “simply unlawful, and worse yet, inhumane.”
Durbin also described the Trump administration’s immigration policies as “cruel, immoral, and an abuse of taxpayer funding.” Only Democratic Senate staff helped prepare the Guantánamo-specific report. Its findings are not a court ruling.
Military guards and ICE personnel worked under different rules
The approximately 850 men transferred from U.S. ICE holding sites came from 36 nations, according to the staff report. Their average detention lasted 20 to 30 days, though some remained for months.
The Pentagon’s position was that migrants remained in ICE custody. But military personnel reportedly followed Army detention policies, while other staff said they followed ICE rules. The investigation questioned whether military or Homeland Security detention requirements were properly applied.
The report also challenged the use of military personnel for a mission formally treated as ICE detention. It said the arrangement carried costs for taxpayers and military readiness. The report’s phrase was blunt: “This comes at a significant cost to taxpayers and undermines military readiness.”
A separate 100-bed Homeland Security facility for migrants intercepted at sea could accommodate only 50 men because of longstanding maintenance or structural problems. It stood empty during the August inspection.
The GAO counted low daily populations and costly abandoned tents
A separate Government Accountability Office review put the operation inside a larger detention-expansion effort. Durbin, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan released that report on September 24, 2026. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi also was identified as a requester of the review.
The GAO said DHS and the Defense Department had planned for as many as 30,000 detention beds at the naval base. A tent project intended for 5,000 people was abandoned after DHS found the structures did not meet federal detention standards. The Defense Department spent $2.85 million erecting the tents, which came down without housing a detainee.
The GAO separately reported that ICE obligated $43 million for the operation between October 1, 2024, and June 30, 2026. In fiscal year 2026, an average of only 16 noncitizens per day were held there. The GAO described the outcome this way: “Changing plans and high operating costs have resulted in incurring unnecessary costs, which resulted in waste at Guantanamo Bay.”
Durbin said in the GAO report release that the administration had engaged in “cavalier and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars without any benefit to the American people.” Peters said the report showed why Americans were demanding accountability, and pointed to facilities later dismantled or retrofitted after failing basic standards.
ICE’s expansion still lacks a completed strategic plan
The broader review examined detention growth beyond the island operation. Congress provided ICE $45 billion for expansion under the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill. ICE officials told the GAO in June 2026 that the administration aimed for 100,000 detention beds.
ICE bought 11 warehouses for approximately $1.07 billion, and seven were later slated for sale. The abandoned warehouse effort produced $7.7 million in nonrecoverable costs, including zoning assessments and title insurance. Utilities, security and related services added approximately $12.8 million as of the reporting period.
As of July 2026, ICE had spent $2.5 billion purchasing warehouses and detention facilities. Its projections covered acquisition, renovation and only the first three years of operating expenses. The funding streams extend only through fiscal year 2029, leaving later operating costs unprojected.
The GAO also cited more than $11 million in waste at Camp East Montana, including meal payments made before detainees arrived. Heather MacLeod, director of the GAO’s Homeland Security and Justice Division, said ICE had “wasted funds on unsuccessful detention initiatives” and lacked a strategic plan. ICE audit liaison David E. Schmitt agreed the agency needed one.
The GAO recommended that the ICE director prepare a strategic plan setting goals, activities and resource needs. DHS agreed, and Schmitt said the plan was expected by August 31, 2027.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to offshore detention raises separate legal questions. Courts, not the Senate staff report, will determine the claims in that case.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney about your specific case.
