First U.S military flight of “criminal Aliens” to Guantanamo Bay. Photo released by the DHS Feb. 04, 2025.
By Gary Raynaldo – DIPLOMATIC TIMES
President Trump’s first flight of “criminal aliens” arrived Wednesday at the infamous Guantanamo Bay military facility in Cuba, the Department of Defense confirmed. The DOD said 10 high-threat illegal aliens were booked into the detention facility at GITMO. “This activity is in support of President Trump’s direction to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States,” according to a DOD statement.
The Department of Homeland Security said all 10 of the illegal aliens are part of the transnational criminal organization “Tren de Aragua” from Venezuela. DHS said the “worst of the worst” criminals will be held at the U.S. military facility.
“President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today.” –Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem -Feb. 04, 2024.
Last month, the Trump White House announced that the GITMO detention facility should be used to house high-threat illegal aliens as they are moved from the United States back to their countries of origin. Until this week, GITMO had been used for decades to house refugees and migrants fleeing Haiti, Cuba and other Caribbean nations who were intercepted at sea. It is the first time the U.S. military has flown migrants to GITMO.
GITMO Best Known For Gross Human Rights Abuses From U.S. War On Terror
The military base is best known for housing detainees from the U.S. war on terrorism since 2002 and was widely criticized for gross human rights abuses including arbitrary detention without trial accompanied by torture. Human rights groups expressed concern that Trump is designating migrants as terrorists to be dumped at a facility with such a sordid history without legal and social services support.
First U.S military flight of “criminal Aliens” to Guantanamo Bay. Photo released by the DHS Feb. 04, 2025.
The Trump administration last month designated Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials apprehended nearly 200 members from January 21 until February 3, the White House reported Wednesday. Trump directed his administration to undertake a massive expansion of detention space inside GITMO naval base to detain as many as 30,000 “high-threat” illegal aliens.
