10 ‘high-threat’ migrant detainees transferred to Guantanamo Bay: Pentagon

By AFP
February 06, 2025
A federal agent checks a detained migrant, one of several, who a US government spokesperson referred to as ‘highly dangerous criminal aliens,’ before boarding a flight to Guantanamo, February 4, 2025. — Reuters
A federal agent checks a detained migrant, one of several, who a US government spokesperson referred to as ‘highly dangerous criminal aliens,’ before boarding a flight to Guantanamo, February 4, 2025. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that the first group of 10 migrant detainees arrived at a detention facility in Guantanamo Bay following US President Donald Trump’s order to establish a detention centre.

”The Department of Defence announced the arrival of 10 high-threat illegal aliens to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba yesterday,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

“This activity is in support of President Trump’s direction to the Secretary of Defence and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Centre at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States,” it said. “These 10 high-threat individuals are currently being housed in vacant detention facilities.”

CBS News reported that the area is separate from Guantanamo’s military prison that was established after the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks, where the US still holds more than a dozen terror suspects.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement “is taking this measure to ensure the safe and secure detention of these individuals until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination,” it added. The statement stressed that the detention of the high-threat illegal aliens at Guantanamo Bay is a temporary measure.

A plane carrying the migrant detainees departed from the Fort Bliss Army base near the Texas border for the detention center, according to CBS News.

Trump ordered the construction of a detention camp at Guantanamo Bay last week to house up to 30,000 criminal migrants who he defined as “the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

The president has made the issue a priority on the international stage as well, threatening Colombia with sanctions and massive tariffs for turning back two planeloads of deportees.