Camp X-Ray was originally built during Operation Sea Signal to house "excludables" in the mid-1990s when Fidel Castro allowed any Cuban wishing to do so, to cross through the Cuban-operated minefields and enter the base.

Over 100,000 CAS were processed in the mid-1990s and allowed to enter the United States.During the War on terror, beginning in the fall of 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, the US reestablished the camp for housing captured combatants.

[7] This camp was one of several locations managed by the United States where prisoners had suffered torture by US soldiers and agents in relation to interrogation.

[8][9] Dick Cheney, as the then Vice President in 2002, said: Prisoners could be detained until the end of the natural conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[10]According to Carol Rosenberg, writing for the Miami Herald, Camp X-Ray was visited by a court-ordered forensic FBI team in November 2009.