First Military Flight Takes Migrants to Guantanamo Bay

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who served at Guantanamo Bay during his active duty, has referred to it as a “perfect place” to house migrants.

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First Military Flight Takes Migrants to Guantanamo Bay

The first U.S. military flight to deport migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay has departed and is expected to land Tuesday evening, according to two U.S. officials. This marks the first step in an anticipated surge of migrants being sent to the Navy base in Cuba, which has long been used to detain foreigners linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. President Donald Trump has expressed interest in the facility as a holding center and stated that it has the capacity to house up to 30,000 people.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who served at Guantanamo Bay during his active duty, has referred to it as a “perfect place” to house migrants. In the past few days, additional U.S. troops have arrived at the facility to assist with preparations.

Amy Fischer, director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, criticized the decision to use Guantanamo for migrant housing. “Sending immigrants to Guantanamo is a profoundly cruel, costly move. It will cut people off from lawyers, family and support systems, throwing them into a black hole so the U.S. government can continue to violate their human rights out of sight. Shut Gitmo down now and forever!” Fischer said in a statement.

Additionally, a flight carrying Indian migrants back to India took place on Monday, and that flight was still in progress as of midday Tuesday, one official reported. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal details that had not yet been made public.

There have been seven previous deportation flights to Ecuador, Guam, Honduras, and Peru. Colombian officials also flew to the U.S. and returned two flights of migrants to their country.

Around 300 service members are supporting the holding operations at Guantanamo Bay, with the numbers fluctuating based on the needs of the Department of Homeland Security, which leads the federal operations. At least 230 of these service members are U.S. Marines from the 6th Marine Regiment, who began deploying on Friday.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than 725,000 immigrants from India are living in the U.S. without authorization, ranking third among all countries, behind Mexico and El Salvador. In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the number of Indians attempting to cross the U.S.-Canada border. In the year ending Sept. 30, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians at the Canadian border, representing 60% of all arrests along that border and more than 10 times the number arrested two years ago.