Key appointees of United States President Donald Trump to major positions in government, including Tulsi Gabbard and Kashyap Patel, face Senate hearings on Thursday to approve their appointments.On Wednesday, Robert F Kennedy Jr faced a barrage of questions during a contentious Senate hearing on his nomination to be Trump’s health secretary.
Trump also made major announcements about immigration and deportation policies including plans to send undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo Bay and signing the Laken Riley Act into law, granting federal authorities greater power to deport undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.
Here’s what we know about these latest announcements and the forthcoming hearings.
Guantanamo Bay
Trump has announced plans to transform the notorious US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a holding centre for 30,000 undocumented immigrants.
Tom Homan, who Trump announced as “border czar” in November, said the existing Guantanamo facility – distinct from the military prison – will be expanded and operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Advertisement
Trump has said 30,000 beds will be available to house “the worst” undocumented immigrants – meaning those with criminal records – saying his administration “didn’t trust” their countries of origin to hold them.
Cuban’s president criticised the plan. “In an act of brutality, the new US government announces the imprisonment at the Guantanamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied territory Cuba, of thousands of migrants that it forcibly expels, and will place them next to the well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X.
En acto de brutalidad, nuevo gobierno de EEUU anuncia encarcelamiento en Base Naval en Guantánamo, ubicada en territorio de #Cuba ilegalmente ocupado, de miles de migrantes que expulsa forzosamente, a los que ubicará junto a las conocidas cárceles de tortura y detención ilegal.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) January 29, 2025
Guantanamo Bay, located on the southeastern tip of Cuba, has housed a US military base since 1898, following its seizure during the Spanish-American War.
Following the 2001 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, the centre was u …