President Donald Trump unveiled plans on Wednesday to repurpose the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to detain immigrants accused of serious crimes.

MIAMI - President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his administration plans to send thousands of undocumented immigrants to detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a move that has drawn sharp reactions from South Florida officials and immigration advocates.

The administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, said U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement would run the facility in Cuba and that the “the worst of the worst" could go to Guantanamo.

President Trump signed a memorandum to build a 30,000-person detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for migrants in the U.S. illegally.

The president orders the construction of a detention facility at the US Navy base, prompting an angry backlash from Cuba.

Trump said the move would double U.S. detention lockup capacities, and Guantanamo is “a tough place to get out of.”

President Donald Trump ordered construction of a deportee detention camp with room for 30,000 migrants on the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

We’re going to send them out to Guantanamo," the president said in the White House East Room. He did not elaborate.

The US president wants to send unauthorised immigrants to Guantanamo Bay, a prison notorious for the abuse of inmates.

"We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people," Trump said during an event to sign the Laken Riley Act into law.

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan Years of organizing, educating and empowering people to defend themselves from racist immigration policies are showing results.