Why is the Detention Camp at Guantánamo Bay Still Open?

Maya Khachab

An image taken by the military on Jan. 11, 2002, shows the first 20 prisoners at Guantánamo Bay soon after their arrival (Via: Petty Officer First Class Shane T. McCoy/U.S. Navy)

Guantánamo Bay (Gitmo) is the oldest U.S. military base abroad, established in 1903 on Cuba’s southeast coast. Under U.S. pressure, Cuba signed a perpetual lease, granting the U.S. control in exchange for an annual payment. After Fidel Castro took power in 1959, Cuba deemed the U.S. presence illegal and stopped cashing rent checks, but the U.S. remained. Post-9/11, the Department of Defense under President George W. Bush established Guantánamo Bay as a detention center for terrorism suspects associated with Al-Qaeda, the Taliba, or other militant groups. 

Soon after Donald Trump began his second Presidential term in 2025, his administration and the appropriate agencies implemented large-scale deportation campaigns and sent migrants from around the world to Guantanamo, including from countries that are willing to take them back. This has raised questions about whom the government is choosing to send there and why. Trump describes the migrants being deported as “the worst criminal aliens,” supposedly all members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, however, many family members of those detained have already spoken out against these sentiments. Among nearly 200 immigrants sent to the notorious detention facility was Yoiker Sequera, a Venezuelan migrant. His mother, heartbroken over his detention, condemned the action, saying, "Pain, anguish, despair. As a mother, that is what I feel." She cried that her son is innocent.

The detention of migrants has long been a standard practice in the U.S. immigration system, with over 200 detention facilities across the country, but sending them to such an extrajudicial site without any fair trial has been divisive and marks an unprecedented escalation in immigration enforcement. 

Known for the disproportionate targeting of Muslim men and boys, Gitmo is one of the most notorious detention centers, known for extreme torture methods—including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions, and sexual humiliation—as well as widely documented human rights abuses that violate the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

A 2006 study by the Seton Hall Law School found that only 8% of detainees were classified as al-Qaeda members, and many were not involved in hostilities against the U.S. Many detainees were captured based on bounty programs, where local Afghan and Pakistani warlords handed over individuals in exchange for U.S. payments, regardless of their actual involvement in terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reported in 2022 that, out of 779 individuals detained since the facility's inception, nearly all were held without charge or trial. At that time, 39 men remained in custody, with 27 never having been charged with any crime.  Additionally, the use of coerced confessions has complicated legal proceedings, led to dismissals, and weakened cases against detainees, ultimately undermining the credibility of convictions. 

Despite repeated calls for its closure, Guantánamo Bay remains operational. Victoria Clarke, then spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, defended the Pentagon’s handling of detainees, stating, “The challenge was that the Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit holding detainees up to public ridicule or humiliation.” The Pentagon justified its approach by arguing that it was portraying safely held, anonymous prisoners while still complying with Geneva Convention obligations to protect detainees from “public curiosity.”

However, in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the military commissions established to try Guantánamo detainees were unlawful. The Court found that these tribunals violated both the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions, as they lacked proper legal authorization and failed to provide detainees with the fundamental judicial guarantees required under these legal frameworks.

Guantánamo Bay must be shut down immediately. For over two decades, this facility has unjustly detained Muslim men without charge, subjecting them to inhumane conditions, torture, and indefinite imprisonment in violation of both U.S. and international law. Now, under the Trump administration’s large-scale deportation campaign, migrants are also being sent to this extrajudicial site, further deepening the human rights crisis.

Politically, national security concerns and partisan opposition have stalled closure efforts, with many lawmakers prioritizing optics over justice. Federal courts have consistently proven more effective in handling terrorism trials, successfully prosecuting nearly 700 cases since 9/11 while upholding constitutional protections. In contrast, military commissions have proven slow and ineffective, leaving high-profile cases unresolved for over two decades. The Department of Justice has since banned the use of torture-obtained evidence, further exposing the commissions' flaws. Diplomatic challenges also prevent detainees from being repatriated or resettled in third countries, while the Pentagon and intelligence agencies resist closure to avoid legal precedents limiting counterterrorism operations. Despite Guantánamo’s excessive $500 million annual cost, low political will has kept it running. While Biden has reduced detainee numbers, congressional roadblocks and bureaucratic inertia make full closure unlikely without legal reforms and stronger international pressure. 

No legal system that upholds justice and human dignity should allow individuals to languish in prison without due process, their fates determined by politics rather than evidence. This facility is a symbol of cruelty, Islamophobia, and the abandonment of basic human rights. The continued existence of Guantánamo Bay is an international disgrace, and its closure is not a political debate—it is a moral imperative. The U.S. must end this era of indefinite detention, repatriate or resettle those still imprisoned, and dismantle the system of abuse that has defined Gitmo for far too long.