2026 House Resolution 338

Whereas, The Trump Administration is using the facilities at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay to detain aliens unlawfully present in the United States. On January 29, 2025, President Trump issued a memorandum directing the expansion of the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay to full capacity, to provide additional detention space and address immigration enforcement needs. Over 800 migrants have been transferred to the base since the memorandum was issued. This is reportedly the first time that migrants have been transferred to Guantánamo Bay from the territorial United States, a move currently being litigated in U.S. courts by human rights organizations that argue this violates U.S. immigration law, that it is arbitrary and capricious, and that it violates the due process protections of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and

Whereas, The Trump Administration also has plans to use Guantánamo Bay in the event of a migration surge from Cuba. On March 19, 2026, General Francis L. Donovan, Commander of the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), testified before the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services that USSOUTHCOM has an executive order to “be prepared to support [the Department of Homeland Security] in a mass migration event,” in which the Department of Homeland Security would take the lead. The General further testified that USSOUTHCOM would use Guantánamo Bay as the primary land-based site to “set up a camp to deal with those migrants” in the event of a migration surge from Cuba; and

Whereas, Guantánamo Bay has a long and deeply troubling history of abuse. Following a military coup d’état in Haiti in September 1991, the United States Coast Guard interdicted over 34,000 Haitians in just six months. Tens of thousands of fleeing Haitians were held at the base at Guantánamo Bay in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions without adequate medical care. In the mid-1990s, tens of thousands of Cubans were similarly detained under harsh conditions, with limited access to food, water, and healthcare. Since 2002, the Guantánamo Bay detention facility has become synonymous with torture and open-ended detention in the context of the so-called “Global War on Terror,” where hundreds of men and boys were held without charge or trial. As of January 2026, 15 detainees remained at the facility, three of whom have long been cleared for transfer. As recently as 2023, a Special Rapporteur for the United Nations concluded that conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility amounted to “ongoing cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” and “may also meet the legal threshold for torture”; and

Whereas, The expansion of migrant detention at Guantánamo Bay carries an extraordinary moral cost for Americans, compounded by a staggering financial burden. According to a joint report by the Departments of Defense and State Inspectors General, as of September 30, 2025, the Department of Defense had obligated over $60 million for Operation Southern Guard and disbursed over $35 million, while the Department of Homeland Security spent nearly $18 million on the program through the end of October 2025. This demonstrates the Trump Administration’s profoundly distorted priorities, being willing to devote vast public resources to punitive and cruel policies rather than to investments that benefit the broader public; and

Whereas, There has been significant emigration from Cuba in recent years, which may be driven significantly by U.S. policy. The nearly 65-year-old embargo has long constrained Cuba’s economy, and the tightening of sanctions under the first Trump Administration has deepened a crisis that has persisted since 2021. In the face of this crisis, more than one million people—nine percent of the island’s population—left the country between 2022 and 2023 alone; and

Whereas, The Cuban people’s quality of life has been severely impacted by U.S. sanctions. According to preliminary data from Cuban authorities, Cuba’s infant mortality rate more than doubled from 2018 to 2025, increasing by 147.5 percent. This is a dramatic change from the situation ten years ago, when Cuba’s infant mortality rate was among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Stricter sanctions imposed by the United States since 2017 have been cited as a likely cause of these worsening rates, driven by widespread healthcare shortages. Alongside longstanding sanctions, the recent imposition of an ongoing de facto fuel blockade by the Trump Administration has led to prolonged blackouts, shortages of food, fuel, and water, and the disruption of essential services including healthcare and transportation; and

Whereas, These impacts have drawn the attention of international observers. Shortly after the Trump Administration imposed tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba, a United Nations spokesperson stated that the Secretary-General was “extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet.” United Nations experts continue to express concern about the consequences of the fuel blockade; and

Whereas, Some are concerned that the Trump Administration is considering potential military action against Cuba. Such action could be catastrophic for the Cuban population, destabilizing the nation, exacerbating mass suffering, further increasing displacement, and ultimately undermining U.S. interests in the region. It must be unequivocally rejected; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives, That we urge the Trump Administration not to use Naval Station Guantánamo Bay for the detention of migrants, including in the event of a surge of migration from Cuba; and be it further

Resolved, That we urge the Trump Administration to suspend Operation Southern Guard and halt all transfers of migrants to Guantánamo, with a view toward permanently closing the facility and returning the land back to the community; and be it further

Resolved, That we urge the federal government to lift the coercive economic measures, including the fuel blockade and related sanctions, that are contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Cuba and contributing to emigration from the country; and be it further

Resolved, That we urge the Trump Administration to abandon any plans for military action against Cuba; and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, the United States Secretary of Defense, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, and the members of the Michigan congressional delegation.