The first U.S. government flight transporting “high-threat” migrants to Guantanamo Bay landed Tuesday evening as part of the Trump administration’s intensified crackdown on illegal immigration.
The C-17 aircraft departed from El Paso, Texas, and touched down at 7:20 p.m. Eastern Time, according to U.S. Transportation Command. The 10 individuals on board were suspected members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal gang, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Despite being housed at Guantanamo Bay, the migrants will not be placed in the same facility as existing detainees. Instead, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will oversee their detention in vacant holding facilities.
The Defense Department emphasized that the move is temporary, ensuring the safe detention of these individuals until they are repatriated or sent to another appropriate destination.
“This measure ensures the secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or another designated location,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 29, directing the Department of Defense (DoD) and DHS to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay.
The center, separate from the high-security prison housing suspected terrorists, will now be used to detain migrants without legal status in the U.S.
“There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “So we’re going to use it.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the flights during a Fox News interview, stating that Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were fulfilling their promise to use Guantanamo for “illegal criminals who have committed heinous crimes.”
The administration aims to expand the facility’s capacity to house up to 30,000 migrants.
While Trump has emphasized that Guantanamo will hold the “worst of the worst,” Defense Secretary Hegseth has stated that it is the “perfect place” to detain individuals before deportation.
“Where do you put Tren de Aragua before deporting them? A maximum-security prison at Guantanamo Bay, where we have the space,” Hegseth said.
Secretary Noem added that migrants will not be held indefinitely. “Due process will be followed,” she assured in a recent NBC News interview.
As of Monday, 300 U.S. service members were stationed at Guantanamo Bay to support the migrant detention operations.
An additional 200 Marines are expected to arrive soon, according to U.S. officials.
The DoD has confirmed that these troops are there to help expand the Migrant Operations Center, keeping it separate from the base’s high-security prison.
Experts warn that detaining migrants at Guantanamo Bay presents logistical and humanitarian challenges. Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University, noted that in the past, the base has held migrants in poor conditions.
“There was a report in September detailing unsanitary conditions, mistreatment, and unclear legal status for detainees,” Greenberg said.
Historically, Guantanamo Bay has been used to hold migrants intercepted at sea, but flying individuals from the U.S. mainland marks a significant shift in policy.
While the administration insists the measure is temporary, questions remain about the long-term impact of housing migrants at a site long associated with national security detainees.
