U.S. National Security and Detention Policy

The U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay entered its 25th year on Jan. 11, 2026, now holding just 15 remaining detainees from the post‑9/11 “war on terror” but still employing about 800 U.S. personnel — more than 50 staff for each prisoner. Since it opened on Jan. 11, 2002, the facility has held roughly 780 men and boys, most of them released during the George W. Bush administration. Carol Rosenberg’s reporting also reveals that in the past year the Trump administration has repurposed Guantánamo as a transit hub for federal prisoners, including about 775 migrants cycled through the base for days or weeks. In a secret operation this month, a U.S. military cargo plane flew captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, to the base immediately after U.S. forces deposed him, underscoring how Washington is again using Guantánamo in sensitive national‑security operations. The story puts fresh numbers on the cost and scale of the prison’s twilight years as debates over its legality, human‑rights record and future flare up alongside its new role in Trump-era detention and regime‑change policy.