WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump`s use of the Guantanamo Bay naval base to house migrants appears to cost $100,000 per day for each detainee, US Senator Gary Peters said during a hearing on Tuesday, decrying `a prime example of wasteful government spending`.

Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate`s homeland security committee, questioned Secretary Kristi Noem about the high cost, far more than the $165 per day in US immigration detention facilities. Gary Peters also asked why detainees have been sent to the American naval base in Cuba, but then shuttled back to the United States at taxpayer expense.

`We`re spending $100,000 a day to keep someone at Guantanamo,` Peters said. `We keep them there awhile, then we fly them back to the United States, or we could keep them here for $165 a day. I think that`s kind of outrageous.

The White House has requested a huge increase in funding for immigration enforcement as it tries to achieve Trump`s goal of mass deportations.-Reuters