US President Donald Trump has said he is directing the opening of a detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to hold up to 30,000 migrants who are living illegally in the United States.
Mr Trump made the announcement right before he signed the Laken Riley Act into law as his administration’s first piece of legislation.
The bipartisan measure means that people who are in the US illegally and are accused of theft and violent crimes would have to be detained and potentially deported even before a conviction.
The measure quickly passed the new Republican-controlled Congress with some Democratic support even though immigrants rights advocates said it possibly could lead to large roundups of people for offences as minor as shoplifting.
Mr Trump has pledged that his administration will carry out the largest mass deportation effort in US history.
Mr Trump, who won back the White House by tapping into public anger over illegal immigration, has made the promised crackdown a centrepiece of his political career, and is now suggesting the new law might only be the beginning.