On Wednesday, President Trump issued multiple executive orders intended to bring changes to the American education system. These orders include limiting the way racism is taught in schools, taking measures to address antisemitism, and permitting the use of taxpayer funds for private school education. Also, he has announced that he would direct the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security to set up a migrant detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, capable of holding up to 30,000 migrants.

The US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has a migrant facility that's been around for decades and used to hold people like Haitians and Cubans rescued at sea. This facility is separate from the high-security prison for terrorism suspects. Now, the Trump administration plans to expand this facility, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement running it, according to Tom Homan, Trump's border czar.

One of the executive orders, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” aimed to cut funding for schools that teach that the United States is “fundamentally racist, sexist or otherwise discriminatory.” It instructed government agencies to prepare “ending indoctrination strategy” focused on eliminating lessons related to transgender issues, “white privilege,” or “unconscious bias” and emphasised redirecting federal resources toward promoting patriotic education as long as it complied with existing laws.

Another order laid the groundwork for deporting international students accused of “antisemitic harassment and violence” in connection with protests over the war in Gaza. This measure is part of a broader effort by the administration to crack down on what it classifies as antisemitic speech.

A third directive instructed agencies to identify grants and discretionary programs that could be repurposed to support school voucher programs in different states. These programs would allow public funds to be used by families for their children’s education at home, private schools, or religious institutions.

On Wednesday, the orders empowered the Education Department to impose penalties on schools that deviate from the principles of "patriotic education," which Trump has emphasised should form the foundation of American history lessons. The move seemed intended to prompt schools to urgently review their course catalogues for any material that might put them at risk of losing federal funding.

The order also brought back Trump's first-term initiative to revise history syllabuses. This initiative called the "1776 Commission," was developed by a group of right-wing Trump allies as a guideline to reshape how slavery is taught and to depict left-wing social and political movements as subversive. The order reinstated the commission and instructed the Education Department to fund it as much as legally possible.

On the other hand, at the White House, Trump said, “Today I’m also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay.” 

Trump further said this facility would be used to “detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don’t even trust the countries to hold them because we don’t want them coming back, so we’re going to send them out to Guantanamo. This will double our capacity immediately, right? And, tough.”

Shortly after, Trump signed a memorandum that did not specify the number of migrants but called for “additional detention space” at the expanded facility.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Homan stated that the centre would be designated for the “worst of the worst.”

When asked about the cost of the facility, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the administration was collaborating with reconciliation and appropriators in Congress to determine the necessary funding.

The Guantanamo Bay detention facility has a long and complex history. Established by President George W. Bush in 2002, it was intended to hold foreign militant suspects captured after the 9/11 attacks. Today, just 15 detainees are remaining. Despite Presidents Obama's and Joe Biden's efforts to close the facility, it remains open, with President Trump vowing to keep it operational.

The Guantanamo Bay prison has faced longstanding criticism from human rights organisations for its practice of indefinite detention. It became a symbol of the early "war on terror", with critics arguing that the harsh interrogation techniques used there amounted to torture.

However, the migrant facility at Guantanamo is separate from the detention centre that has housed terrorism suspects.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel condemned Trump’s proposal, calling it "an act of brutality."

Advocacy groups supporting refugees have urged for the closure of the migrant detention facility and demanded that Congress launch an investigation into reports of mistreatment at the site.

The International Refugee Assistance Project, in a 2024 report, detailed the poor conditions detainees faced. According to the report, detainees described unsanitary living environments, families with young children being placed in the same quarters as single adults, no access to private phone calls, and a lack of educational services for children.

The US military has decided to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) use Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado to detain migrants. This move comes after the US military started deportation flights for migrants and sent over 1,600 active-duty troops to the US-Mexico border following President Trump's emergency declaration on immigration.