Migrants detained in the US being deported to the occupied Guantánamo Bay. Photo: X/@Sec_Noem.
The first flight carrying detained migrants from the US to Guantánamo Bay arrived Tuesday evening, as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, a US Transportation Command official told ABC News.
The C-17 aircraft took off from El Paso, Texas, and supposedly carried a small number of migrants who will be held at the high-security prison in the US-occupied Cuban territory that was used to hold alleged terrorists associated with al-Qaeda.
The 10 people on the flight are suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to a US official.
The migrants will not be locked up with the existing detainees at Guantánamo Bay, and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will have primary guard duty over them.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 29 directing the secretaries of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to “expand the Migrant Operations Center at Guantánamo Bay Naval Station to full capacity,” to house migrants without legal status living in the United States.
“There’s plenty of room to accommodate a lot of people,” Trump said on Tuesday, February 4. “So we’re going to use it.
“Immigrants are tough, but we’ve got some bad ones, too,” he added. “I’d like to get them out. It would all be subject to the laws of our land, and we’re looking at that to see if we can.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that flights carrying migrants to Guantánamo Bay were underway Tuesday morning, saying on Fox News, “Trump, Pete Hegseth and Kristi Noem are already making good on their promise to use that capacity at Gitmo for illegal criminals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws and then committed further heinous crimes against legal American citizens here at home.”
(Aporrea)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/BR/SC
