If illegal immigrants cannot go to a different country immediately, they can go to Guantanamo Bay, according to Hegseth.

Most people don’t even know that we have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

The US has maintained a migrant detention facility there for decades that is separate from the notorious high-security jail for foreign terror suspects, including alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

In his first interview since being sworn in as defense secretary, Pete Hegseth sought to clarify how the federal government plans to use Guantánamo Bay to detain migrants being deported from the United States.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order instructing his officials to prepare a facility to house 30,000 immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. This facility in Cuba has a notorious past where prisoners accused of terrorism-related offences have been detained after 9/11.

President Trump says the the 30,000-person facility for undocumented migrants will house "the worst criminal illegal aliens".

The president said the facility at the U.S. naval base could house as many as 30,000 people

The president suggested 30,000 migrants could be housed on the base. It is unclear how the plan will take shape.

This week has brought an avalanche of news, from a tragic aerial collision in Washington, D.C., to more executive orders.

President Donald Trump says he’s directing the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay to hold up to 30,000 migrants who are living illegally in the United States.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order to use Guantanamo Bay as a migrant detention facility for "the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people."