In New Answers to Warren, Hegseth Reveals Cost of Detaining Immigrants at Guantanamo Bay Nearly $20 Million More than Initially Reported

In New Answers to Warren, Hegseth Reveals Cost of Detaining Immigrants at Guantanamo Bay Nearly $20 Million More than Initially Reported

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, released new answers from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Department of Defense (DoD), revealing the Pentagon's financial support for the Trump administration's cruel immigration agenda is far higher than initially reported by DoD.

Senator Warren and Representative Garamendi's (D-Calif.) December 2025 investigation found that DoD had committed at least $2 billion to support immigration enforcement, including nearly $55 million to detain non-citizens at Guantanamo Bay.

"While the prices of groceries, rent, and health care skyrocket, Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are wasting billions in taxpayer funds on a cruel immigration agenda," said Senator Warren. "Congress must refuse to give this administration another penny for these political stunts."

"When President Trump diverts military resources to immigration enforcement, our armed forces suffer. Critical training is delayed, flight hours are lost, and funds are pulled from military family housing and readiness priorities," said Representative John Garamendi. "These diversions weaken the training, modernization, and maintenance our forces need to stay prepared and mission-ready."

In new answers to Questions for the Record, Secretary Hegseth revealed DoD's projected support for Guantanamo Bay operations is now roughly $73 million - nearly $20 million more than initially reported by DoD - for a facility with a maximum capacity of just 50 detainees. Despite the limited capacity at the facility, Secretary Hegseth reported that DoD has deployed 522 department personnel to Guantanamo Bay.

New reporting from CBS reveals the Trump administration has detained a total of 832 people at Guantanamo Bay, and that government employees outnumber detainees 100 to 1, raising concerns about the Department's massive spending on the Guantanamo Bay detention.

Meanwhile, DoD has revealed that some financial support for immigration enforcement is coming at the expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific. Reporting from ABC today revealed the Army is making major training cuts to offset a budget deficit of $4-6 billion, partially due to the military's support for immigration enforcement.

In the coming weeks, Congress will consider providing the Trump administration a further $72 billion to fund the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for four years.

Senator Warren has led the fight to hold the Trump administration accountable for mishandling military funds to pursue its cruel immigration agenda and political stunts:

• In April 2026, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), along with Representative Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) and Representative Troy Carter (D-La.), urged the Inspectors General of the Departments of Homeland Security and State to open an investigation into the Trump administration's attempts to deport people to countries they have no ties to. These deportations use the military to conduct the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas.
• In March 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) led 52 members of Congress in a new investigation into potential corruption in government contracts stemming from the White House's fast-tracked expansion of inhumane warehouse-based immigration detention facilities using a Navy contracting vehicle.
• In January 2026, following a new report by the Congressional Budget Office revealing Trump's domestic deployments of the National Guard and Marines have cost at least $589 million - more than double what Senator Warren's bicameral investigation previously found - she called for the Trump administration to "answer for wasting more than half a billion taxpayer dollars."
• In December 2025, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Trump's nominee to be Army General Counsel, on the deployment of the National Guard and reports that senior Judge Advocate General (JAG) officers have been sidelined after raising legal concerns about military operations.
• In December 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative John Garamendi (D-Calif.) co-led the release of a new report, along with 11 other members of Congress, revealing the Trump administration diverted more than $2 billions of military funds and resources from the Pentagon to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement, and its impact on readiness and morale. The report also revealed that the diversion of funds was happening at the expense of updates to barracks, maintenance hangers, and military construction projects in the Pacific.
• In September 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) led more than 60 members of Congress in opening a new investigation into the Trump administration's practice of detaining and sending immigrants to countries where they have no citizenship or connections of any kind. These deportations use the military to conduct the international deportation flights and detaining noncitizens on U.S. military bases within the United States and overseas.
• In February 2025, Senators Warren (D-Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the military's deployment of active-duty forces to the southern border and Guantanamo, and the Department of Defense's (DOD) new involvement in immigration detention and deportation.

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