Durbin Releases Insights From Congressional Oversight Visit Of Immigration Detention At Guantánamo Bay

Durbin Releases Insights From Congressional Oversight Visit Of Immigration Detention At Guantánamo Bay

WASHINGTON - In August 2026, congressional staff conducted an oversight visit to Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, where the Trump Administration has transported immigrants despite the facility's failure to meet some basic immigration detention standards including lack of access to counsel, failure to post required information in areas where detention operations were being conducted, and confusion amongst the agency representatives during the visit about which federal agencies' detention standards should be followed at the facilities.

The staff noted that the Trump Administration staffs the facilities whether any immigrants are being detained at Guantánamo Bay or not, including during extended periods of time when there are none present. Detaining immigrant detainees at Guantánamo Bay comes at an exorbitant cost to taxpayers, with a total of approximately 852 immigrants being held at the facility since January 2025 at the cost of more than $100 million.

U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement: "Transferring immigrants to Guantánamo Bay is simply unlawful, and worse yet, inhumane. The Trump Administration has refused to provide any legal justification for housing immigrants at Guantánamo Bay while wasting millions in taxpayer dollars on facilities that cannot even meet federal standards for detention centers. The Trump Administration's immigration policy is cruel, immoral, and an abuse of taxpayer funding."

Congressional staff noted the following:

• At the time of the congressional staff's oversight visit, no immigrants were in detention at Guantánamo Bay; however, 445 government personnel and contractors were stationed at the base for this mission. Maintaining staff at Guantánamo Bay without immigrant detainees comes at significant cost to taxpayers and severely undermines military readiness.

• Parts of the detention facilities did not appear to meet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention standards. For example, at the time of the visit, Camp VI-a facility that was built and used for law-of-war detainees, not for immigration enforcement-was not equipped to provide secure, confidential access to counsel for detained immigrants, even by phone. At Guantánamo Bay, unlike at other ICE detention facilities, attorneys are not permitted to visit their detained clients in person.

• ICE contractors and Department of Defense (DoD) officials provided congressional staff with contradictory or unclear answers as to how the facilities meet immigration detention standards and what standards applied, including conditions of confinement, medical care, and access to counsel. Longstanding law dictates that ICE maintain custody and control of immigrants, but DoD appeared to be primarily running Camp VI, where immigrants have been detained.

• Information provided by government personnel and contractors at Guantánamo Bay often conflicted with public reporting on immigration detention at the base. For example, government personnel and contractors represented that immigrant detainees have secure access to counsel and can freely communicate with their families, but staff did not observe facilities for secure access, and legal aid organizations are currently suing the government for access to counsel for immigrant detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

Full text of the staff's insights is available here.

A recently issued Government Accountability Office (GAO) report-requested by Senators Durbin, Gary Peters (D-MI), and Jack Reed (D-RI)-examined the Trump Administration's flawed immigration detention expansion, including ill-conceived plans to convert warehouses to detention facilities and waste and performance issues at facilities such as Alligator Alcatraz and Guantánamo Bay. GAO found that despite unprecedented funding, ICE has wasted and will continue to waste millions of taxpayer dollars on immigration detention expansion efforts due to a failure to appropriately plan for facilities that would meet immigration detention standards.

Durbin has spoken out against the Trump Administration's unlawful transfer of immigrants to Guantánamo Bay, and he has led other Senators in demanding answers for the legal justification for using the base as an immigration detention center.

Durbin has been a vocal advocate for shuttering the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. After holding the Senate's first hearing on the need to close Guantánamo in 2013, Durbin held another hearing in 2021 where he reiterated his frequent calls to close the detention facility. Durbin emphasized that keeping the detention center open undermines America's moral standing and credibility around the world and wastes taxpayer dollars.

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