A group of Senate Democrats on Friday sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, warning him that housing thousands of illegal migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will pose a threat to military readiness, and the civil rights of detainees.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month to have the departments of Defense and Homeland Security expand Guantanamo Bay to temporarily hold thousands of illegal migrants. 

The location is intended to be a transitional place for criminal illegal migrants who were in the process of being deported, in order to get them off the U.S. mainland faster. 

“We oppose placing U.S. military and DoD civilian personnel in the legally and morally tenuous position of conducting mass migrant detention operations," the group, led by Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, wrote. "Our men and women in uniform are warfighters, not jailers of migrants.

“The dramatically expanded use of U.S. military personnel and facilities to support mass detention operations overseas will divert DoD personnel and resources from its core warfighting mission,” they added, according to The Hill.

The senators cited previous reports that alleged abuse and mistreatment of detainees in facilities operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and expressed concern that those same abuses could happen to migrants at Guantanamo.

“Given widespread and well-documented abuse of detainees in DHS and DHS-contracted facilities in the United States, we lack confidence that DHS political leadership has the will or capacity to conduct such detention operations at NS Guantánamo Bay humanely," the senators wrote.

The senators asked for more information on how the administration planned to house the migrants, including the cost of the operation; and how many Defense personnel will be diverted to provide security, or support for the operation.

The letter was also signed by Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. 

The military facility was established by former President George W. Bush's administration after the Sep. 11, 2001, terror attacks to detain terror suspects.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.