Defense Secretary Pete Hegses arrived in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday, and arrived on his first trip to the Navy facility since being confirmed by his post in January.
Hegseth was expected to receive a briefing on all mission operations at the base, including detention facilities where illegal immigrants deported from the United States were kept before being transported to their home country.
“We have arrived at Guantanamo Bay Navy Station, which is at the forefront of the war with the American tropical border,” the secretary wrote to X.
He was also expected to meet with the troops at the base and meet USS Thomas Hudner. Images posted on Hegseth’s X account show him meeting and eating with the troops stationed at Gitmo.
Trump administrators end deportation protections for massive Venezuelans amid oppression of illegal immigration
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses greets the troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Hegseth arrived at the military facility on Tuesday. His first visit was confirmed in January. (x via x)@secdef)
“These warriors directly support the arrest and deportation of dangerous, illegal aliens,” he wrote. “We can’t thank them or their families enough.”
The base is best known for detaining terrorist suspects, including those behind the September 11, 2001 attack. President Donald Trump approved the detention of illegal immigrants at his facility shortly after taking office on January 20th.
In January, Trump said he wanted to expand the immigration detention center in Guantanamo to house as many as 30,000 people.
Compared to Biden levels last year, illegal immigrant arrests surge under Trump’s ice
The troops stationed in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses ate on Tuesday. (x via x)@secdef)
“Some of them are so bad that we don’t want them to come back, so we don’t even trust them to hold them, so we’re going to send that country to Guantanamo. That’s it,” Trump said.
Nearly 200 Venezuelan illegal immigrants arrested in the US last week have retreated from Guantanamo Bay after Venezuela expressed interest in accepting citizens.
Earlier this month, two Venezuelan flights carried 190 illegal immigrants from the United States to the South American country.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegses speaks with the military in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (x via x)@secdef)
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The US government claims that illegal Venezuelan immigrants who have been transported to naval bases are members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang. Trump has transformed the gang into a face of suspicion of the threat posed by immigrants who illegally live in the country.
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