WASHINGTON

US troops arrived at the scandal-plagued US naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba over the weekend to set up a migrant detention center ordered by President Donald Trump, the Pentagon confirmed Monday.

"At the direction of the President of the United States to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense, U.S. military service members arrived at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay this weekend where they joined service members already at the base supporting illegal alien holding operations led by DHS," it said.

Over 150 troops from both the Marines and Army are now on-site to assist with the construction of a facility that Trump wants to be able to hold some 30,000 undocumented migrants.

That is a significant hike from the 780 detainees held there during the height of the US War on Terror. Guantanamo is home to the infamous military prison where prisoners have been held, and often subject to torture, for years in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US homeland.

Trump on Wednesday directed the Pentagon to establish the a new facility to hold "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," he said.

The move adds another expensive last-minute task for the military, as officials are also trying to fulfill a separate order from Trump to deploy more troops to the southern border.