US Spends $40 Million In First Month Housing Migrants at Guantanamo Bay

Five senators criticized the cost of housing migrants at Guantánamo Bay (GTMO) after visiting the naval base over the weekend.

The Details: Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) said the Pentagon estimated these operations cost $40 million in the first month; this amount is included in the $330 million spent securing the southern border over the past two months. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) called it “a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.”

For Context: There were 87 migrants at GTMO when the senators visited, though nearly 400 migrants have been held there before deportation since February. Though President Donald Trump said GTMO will house only the “worst criminal aliens,” KQED (Center bias) reports nearly half of the migrants are being housed in low-security facilities, “undermining the administration’s claim.”

How the Media Covered It: KQED focused on the purportedly high cost, calculating it would cost about $430,000 to house these 87 migrants at a standard Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, “a fraction of the $40 million spent at Guantánamo.” Newsmax (Right) also highlighted cost, writing that the $330 million spent on the southern border mission is “a great investment by any definition” when compared to the estimated $150.7 billion annual expenditures on illegal immigration from federal, state, and local governments. New York Times (Lean Left) reported that the Trump administration “has declined to provide evidence” of these migrants’ criminal records and that “checks of some whose identities have been made public showed their crimes amounted to illegally entering the United States.”

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