Last year, Congress approved $170 billion for immigration enforcement under the Trump administration—a staggering sum that still wasn't enough. Now Senate Republicans are pushing for an additional $72 billion through 2029 to fund what critics call Trump's anti-immigrant agenda.
Meanwhile, American taxpayers are footing the bill for a losing war, trillions in Defense Department requests, and even a White House ballroom. A proposed $1.8 billion 'anti-weaponization fund' would further line the pockets of Trump allies.
But one of the most egregious examples of waste flies under the radar: detention operations at Guantanamo Bay. The Trump administration has militarized immigration enforcement, deploying troops to the southern border and National Guard to major cities, and holding migrants at facilities like Fort Bliss, Guantanamo Bay, and a base in Djibouti.
According to a December congressional report by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative John Garamendi, the Department of Defense obligated over $2 billion on immigration enforcement in 2025 alone. This included border security and detention, diverting funds from military construction and authorizing civilian employees to support the Department of Homeland Security.
A May CBS report revealed that over $70 million is being wasted on migrant detention at Guantanamo—$20 million more than identified in December and $10 million over a February inspectors general report. This doesn't account for the hundreds of millions already spent on post-9/11 military detention at Guantanamo, nor DHS expenditures.
Since February 2025, Guantanamo has held 832 immigrants transferred from the U.S. in appalling conditions. Operation Southern Guard marks the first time individuals have been taken to the base from the U.S., adding a layer of cruelty to Guantanamo's legacy as a site of torture and injustice. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned, 'If you break the law... you can find your way at Guantanamo Bay,' but the tents built to hold 30,000 migrants at a cost of $3 million remain unused—a spectacle designed to instill fear.
Guantanamo's history is grim: from Haitian asylum seekers in the 1970s to post-9/11 black sites. Since 2002, 780 detainees have been held, most without charge, at a cost of half a billion dollars annually. The United Nations has called conditions 'ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment' that may meet the legal threshold for torture.
Detention at Guantanamo is far costlier than in the U.S., due to travel, supplies, personnel, and decaying infrastructure. With about 600 government employees and a staff-to-detainee ratio of 100 to 1, the waste is staggering. Congress must stop writing blank checks for cruelty and end detention at Guantanamo, as Trump's political maneuvers continue to prioritize spectacle over accountability.
