President Trump said the base would house as many as 30,000 migrants awaiting deportation. But construction of a tent city was halted weeks ago.
In little over a month, the Trump administration has moved fewer than 300 men from an immigration holding site in Texas to the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay.
As of this past weekend, 40 migrants were at the base in Cuba. In some instances they have spent just days there, before being sent back to the United States without explanation.
On Jan. 29, President Trump said the base would receive as many as 30,000 migrants awaiting deportation. The Defense and Homeland Security Departments began putting up tents for the expected arrivals, but the encampments are not yet open.
Here are some of the things we have learned about the migrant mission so far.
Is Guantánamo ready for 30,000 migrants?
For now, the operation can hold just 225 immigration detainees at a time, according to a briefing provided to members of Congress who visited the base on Friday.
A small dormitory-style building near the airport can house 50 men. The remainder could be held in a Pentagon prison facility, called Camp 6, that until January held people suspected of being members of Al Qaeda who were arrested during the war against terrorism.
But construction on a vast tent city was halted weeks ago. U.S. forces and contractors installed about 195 tents that each has space for 10 to 12 cots, but nobody is occupying them.