"I can … confirm that today the first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants are underway. President Trump, Pete Hegseth, and Kristi Noem are already delivering on this promise to utilize that capacity at Gitmo for illegal criminals who have broken our nation's immigration laws and then have further committed heinous crimes against lawful American citizens here at home." Karoline Leavitt |
President Donald Trump has eyed the facility as a holding center and said it has the capacity to hold as many as 30,000.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was assigned to Guantanamo Bay when he was on active duty, has called it a "perfect place" to house migrants. Additional U.S. troops have arrived at the facility in the past few days to help prepare it.
In addition, the U.S. flew Indian migrants back to India on Monday, and that flight was still in progress as of midday Tuesday, the U.S. official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.
There had previously been seven deportation flights, to Ecuador, Guam, Honduras and Peru. In addition, Colombian officials flew to the U.S. and took two flights of migrants back to their country.
There are approximately 300 service members supporting the holding operations at Guantanamo Bay, and the numbers will fluctuate based on the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security, which is the lead federal agency.
There are more than 725,000 immigrants from India living in the U.S. without authorization, the third most of any country after Mexico and El Salvador, according to the Pew Research Center.
Recent years have also seen a jump in the number of Indians attempting to enter the country along the U.S.-Canada border. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30, which amounted to 60% of all arrests along that border and more than 10 times the number two years ago.
CNN was first to report on the flights.
