Secretary Noem Weighs In On Plan To Send Illegal Aliens To Guantanamo Bay

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said over the weekend that illegal aliens sent to Guantanamo Bay will have the same rights as they would inside the U.S. and that the plan is not to detain them indefinitely.

Noem made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” with Kristen Welker when asked about the plan that President Donald Trump introduced last week.

“Due process will be followed and having facilities at Guantanamo Bay will be an asset to us in the fact that we’ll have the capacity to continue to do there what we’ve always done,” Noem said. “We’ve always had a presence of illegal immigrants there that have been detained. We’re just building out some capacity. So we appreciate the partnership of the DoD in getting that up to the level that it needs to get to in order to facilitate this repatriation of people back to their countries.”

“So remember that Guantanamo Bay clearly, by this president, has said that it will hold the worst of the worst, that we are going after those bad actors,” she continued. “This last week, I was in New York City. We were going after people that had warrants out for their arrest on murders and rapes, assaults, gun purchases, drug trafficking. In fact, we had a member of TDA that was one of the ringleaders that we picked up that week, had been trying to buy grenades. These are the types of individuals that we are targeting, we’re removing from communities, and that could end up having a stay at Guantanamo Bay before they are returned home to their countries to deal with.”

When asked if illegal aliens could be held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Noem responded: “That is not the plan.”

“The plan is to have a process that we follow that’s laid out in law and make sure that we’re dealing with these individuals appropriately according to what the state and the national law directs,” she said. “So we will work with Congress to make sure that we’re addressing our legal immigration laws and using Guantanamo Bay appropriately. But it is an asset that we have that we fully intend to utilize.”

.@Sec_Noem: Guantanamo Bay will be an asset to us for in detaining the worst of the worst illegal aliens as we facilitate their repatriation BACK to their own countries. pic.twitter.com/Qdc5AZyuuD

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 2, 2025