Mon | Jul 6, 2026

First military flight departs to send migrants to Guantanamo Bay

Published:Tuesday | February 4, 2025 | 5:07 PM
FILE - In this April 17, 2019, photo, reviewed by US military officials, the control tower is seen through the razor wire inside the Camp VI detention facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Alex Brandon
FILE - In this April 17, 2019, photo, reviewed by US military officials, the control tower is seen through the razor wire inside the Camp VI detention facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first US military flight to deport migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay has departed and is expected to land Tuesday evening, two US 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 centre and said it has the capacity to hold as many as 30,000.

Defence 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 US 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 US government can continue to violate their human rights out of sight. Shut Gitmo down now and forever!” Fischer said in a statement.

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 US-Canada border. The US 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.

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