U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transported 177 migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras for last elimination to Venezuela, in accordance with a publish on X from the company.
Many of the migrants being housed at Guantanamo Bay have been Venezuelan.
Venezuelan migrants flown from Guantanamo Bay through Honduras, stroll after arriving on a deportation flight at Simon Bolivar Worldwide Airport in Maiquetia, La Guaira State, Venezuela, Feb. 20, 2025.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
In court docket filings, the federal government contended the Guantanamo Bay operation was “meant to be a short lived stopover” on the trail to repatriation. The migrants left on two flights on Thursday.
Venezuelan migrants flown from Guantanamo Bay through Honduras, stroll after arriving on a deportation flight at Simon Bolivar Worldwide Airport in Maiquetia, La Guaira State, Venezuela, Feb. 20, 2025.
Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters
Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem stated in a quick video earlier in February that she visited the bottom and checked out the operations the Division of Homeland Safety and the Division of Protection have been standing up.
“I am down right here on Guantanamo Bay, testing among the operations we’re standing as much as home the worst of the worst, and unlawful criminals from the US of America they will not be there for lengthy” she stated in a video on X.
“ICE intends to make use of [Naval Station Guantanamo Bay] as a short lived staging facility for aliens being repatriated and expects the typical size of keep on the MOC to be as restricted to the time essential to impact the elimination orders,” an ICE official wrote on Thursday.
The primary U.S. army plane to hold detained migrants to a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, who U.S. Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin referred to as “extremely harmful felony aliens”, is boarded from an unspecified location within the U.S. February 4, 2025.
DHS/Reuters
There have been 10 U.S. army flights that initially transported all of the migrants to Guantanamo Bay, with the first carrying 10 migrants arriving on Feb. 4.
“These 10 high-threat people are at the moment being housed in vacant detention amenities,” the Protection Division stated in a press release on the time. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking this measure to make sure the protected and safe detention of those people till they are often transported to their nation of origin or different applicable vacation spot.”
And Noem added in a publish on X on the time, “President @realdonaldtrump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will maintain the worst of the worst. That begins immediately.”
Whereas among the migrants have been suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, the costs they confronted have been unclear.
“The place are you going to place Tren de Aragua earlier than you ship all of them the best way again?” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth requested. “How a couple of maximum-security jail at Guantanamo Bay, the place we now have the house?”
Guantanamo Bay’s Migrant Operations Middle was designated by President Donald Trump in a Jan. 29 government order to accommodate migrants with out authorized standing dwelling in the US. The Migrant Operations Middle, separate from the high-security jail facility that has been used to carry al Qaeda detainees, was set to be operational at “full capability,” in accordance with the order.
A photograph launched by the Division of Homeland Safety of the primary flight of migrants who have been a part of Tren de Aragua, making ready to takeoff for Guantanamo Bay, Feb. 4, 2025.
DHS
The elimination of the migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras follows the migrants being granted entry simply this Thursday to converse to their attorneys over the telephone.
DHS stated on the time that it was figuring out “feasibility and necessity” for in-person visits from the migrants’ attorneys.
“There’s numerous house to accommodate lots of people,” Trump stated on Feb. 4. “So we will use it.
“The migrants are tough, however we now have some dangerous ones, too,” he added. “I would wish to get them out. It might be all topic to the legal guidelines of our land, and we’re that to see if we are able to.”
It’s unclear whether or not there will likely be future migrant flights to Guantanamo Bay.
ABC Information’ Luis Martinez, Laura Romero and Stacey Dec contributed to this report.