Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Wednesday that housing 30,000 deported migrants at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay can “absolutely” be done—and be done “safely” until they’re sent to their “final location.”

On Fox News, former Hegseth colleague Jesse Watters asked about Donald Trump’s executive order earlier in the day mandating the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security get the ball rolling.

“We actually can accommodate 30,000 criminal migrants in Gitmo?” Watters asked.

Hegseth’s reply was unequivocal.

“We absolutely can, and we can plus that up very rapidly,” Hegseth said, before citing his experience on the island in the Army.

“I served there. I know exactly the places where this would happen. Guantanamo has long been a place for migrants. In fact in the ’90s, tens of thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants [were] staged there as part of a crisis,” Hegseth said.

Between 2020 and 2023, only 37 migrants were held at Gitmo, according to The New York Times.

“We have an even bigger crisis on our hands right now. It was mentioned 7,500 violent illegals have been captured by ICE in the last nine days,” Hegseth continued, referring to a Trump administration figure.

“I tell you what, no one is going to be waiting on the Defense Department,” Hegseth asserted. “We’re going to lean forward and make sure we stay on the border to protect it and that we have great tails, which are known as military aircraft, to help mass deportations. And Guantanamo Bay, Jesse, is a perfect spot.”

Later in the interview, Hegseth fully embraced Trump’s across-the-board cuts of federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

“DEI will be ripped out of the [executive] branch because we want everyone treated equally with high standards and held accountable with lethality and readiness front and center,” he told Watters.

“We don’t have time for emphasizing differences, Jesse. One of the biggest, dumbest phrases in military history is ‘our diversity is our strength.’ Our diversity is not our strength,” Hegseth maintained. “Our unity in our shared purpose is our strength. And the Pentagon is excited to get back to that core mission.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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, two U.S. officials said. It is the first step in an expected surge in the number of migrants sent to the Navy base in Cuba, which for decades was primarily used to detain foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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.

Amy Fischer, director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, decried the use of Guantanamo to house migrants.

“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.

In addition, the U.S. flew Indian migrants back to India on Monday, and that flight was still in progress as of midday Tuesday, one of the officials said. The officials 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. At least 230 of those service members are U.S. Marines from the 6th Marine Regiment, who began deploying on Friday.

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.

___

AP writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the U.S.-Mexico border for the first time since taking office. “Any assets necessary, at the Defense Department, to support the expulsion and detention of those in our country illegally, are on the table,” Hegseth said.

By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's first trip since taking office will be to the United States' border with Mexico on Monday, in the latest sign that fortifying the border will be a priority for the Pentagon under President Donald Trump.

Trump has increasingly turned to the military to help carry out his immigration agenda, including sending additional troops to the border, using military aircraft to fly migrants out of the United States, and opening up military bases to help house them.

"POTUS wants 100% operational control of the border—and we will deliver," Hegseth said on Sunday on X, referring to Trump, as he announced the trip to visit troops on the border.

Trump declared a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on Saturday, citing the "extraordinary threat" from fentanyl and illegal immigration, and imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and an extra duty on Chinese goods.

Republican Trump last week said he was expanding a detention facility at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold 30,000 people. His White House border czar, Tom Homan, has said he hopes to start moving migrants there within 30 days.

Additional U.S. Marines arrived at Guantanamo Bay in recent days to prepare to expand a facility that holds migrants.

The Pentagon has also started providing flights for the deportations of more than 5,000 immigrants held by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that U.S. military aircraft flew detained migrants to Honduras and Peru over the weekend.

The military flights are a costly way to fly migrants. Reuters reported that a military deportation flight to Guatemala last week likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant.

That is more than five times the $853 cost of a one-way first-class ticket on American Airlines from El Paso, Texas, the departure point for the flight.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

As tents went up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold migrants, attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security and Pentagon were still trying to determine whether it was legal to take the unprecedented step of flying migrants from the US southern border to the facility, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the planning.

On Tuesday, a military flight carrying migrants was headed to Guantanamo Bay, according to one of the officials. It was carrying around 10 migrants with criminal records, according to a Homeland Security official.

The migrants will be housed at the detention facility part of Guantanamo, separate from the current detainees, according to a US official and a source familiar.

The move stems from President Donald Trump’s memorandum directing the federal government to prepare the US Naval base there to house tens of thousands of migrants. While Guantanamo Bay hosts a migrant-processing center, it has largely been used for migrants interdicted at sea, not brought from the United States.

“They’d be pushing the limits of where the (Immigration and Nationality Act) applies,” said a former Homeland Security official. Immigration law applies to the United States, and it’s unclear what would happen to those moved out of the country only to be held in detention elsewhere.

The source familiar with the plan said questions like how long the migrants can legally be held there, and what their rights would be while detained, are still unanswered. It is also unclear whether the migrants will have any access to legal or social services while detained at the base.

Senior Trump officials have continued to tout the plan, casting it as a facility designed for criminals.

“It’s the perfect place to provide for migrants who are traveling out of our country … but also hardened criminals,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the US southern border Monday.

Pentagon assets have already been sent to the base to build tents near the migrant operations center to house migrants. The first tents started going up last week, sources said.

US Marines flew down over the weekend to help with construction and the Army is heading there soon to provide support services like military police, a quartermaster feeding team and a medical company. At its maximum capacity, the center can hold less than 200 people, underscoring how big of a lift this will be. Sources familiar with the planning say the massive undertaking is expected to take 30 days.

Discussions have also ramped up between private contractors and the government to build several tent facilities to hold 30,000 people, according to a source familiar with the planning. The facilities are expected to hold single adults. They are expected to be transported to Guantanamo Bay on military flights before they’re repatriated to their countries of origin.

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Federal immigration authorities have used tent facilities to hold migrants along the US southern border before, but they are used for temporary periods and must comply with certain standards.

Former Homeland Security officials have expressed concern over swiftly setting up similar facilities at Guantanamo Bay without a clear sense of how long people will be held and who.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend that it’s “not the plan” to hold migrants there indefinitely.

“The plan is to have a process that we follow that’s laid out in law and, make sure that we’re dealing with these individuals appropriately according to what the state and what the national … law directs. So, we will work with Congress to make sure that we’re addressing our legal immigration laws and using Guantanamo Bay appropriately,” she said.

Under the Biden administration, Homeland Security officials assessed the possibility of using the center to temporarily hold migrants in the event of mass maritime migration. The process to expand capacity was expected to take around 30 days, depending on what support elements could be pulled in and how quickly.

Trump’s top immigration advisers previously told CNN that management of a Guantanamo Bay detention facility for migrants would be overseen by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

“We’re just going to expand upon existing migrant centers,” border czar Tom Homan said, adding the facility would be overseen by “our migrant center run out of Miami.”

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth left on Monday, February 3, for his first visit in his new role to the southern border, where he said he will visit troops and “survey operations securing the border.”

Hegseth is planning to hold a media event during a visit to Joint Task Force North on Monday, the agency said.

Footage released on Hegseth’s X page on Monday shows him boarding a plane at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Credit: Pete Hegseth via Storyful