In a significant move by the Trump administration, approximately 300 U.S. military personnel have been deployed to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in southeast Cuba.
Their mission is to aid in the construction of temporary shelters designed to accommodate illegal immigrants deported from the United States. Following the completion of these shelters, the troops will assume responsibility for their security, as reported by the New York Times.
This initiative is part of a broader strategy of mass deportations, with President Trump directing the military to prepare the island for the arrival of at least 30,000 deportees.
According to The Post Millennial, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has assured that the migrants will be housed separately from military prisoners currently detained at the base. He also mentioned the possibility of utilizing a golf course on the island to accommodate an additional 6,000 deported individuals. The USS St. Louis has actively participated in this effort, sharing images of its servicemembers working on the expansion of the base's Migrant Operations Center as part of Operation Southern Guard. This operation represents a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Furthermore, the U.S. Southern Command has established a Joint Task Force Migrant Operations (JFT-MIGOPS) at the naval station to implement the directive.
The deployment of additional Marines and soldiers to the island is anticipated in the coming weeks, as confirmed by a spokesperson from the U.S. Southern Command. President Trump recently signed an executive order emphasizing that the deportations to Guantanamo will primarily involve "the worst-of-the-worst criminal migrants."
He stated, "We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people. Some of them are so bad we don't trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're going to send them to Guantanamo."
This is not the first instance of Guantanamo Bay being utilized to house illegal immigrants. In the 1990s, President George H.W. Bush directed tens of thousands of Haitians, who fled to the U.S. following a military coup in 1991, to the Cuban base. Similarly, in 1994, the base accommodated 30,000 Cubans who attempted to reach the U.S. by raft and other makeshift vessels. Deportation flights to the island have already commenced this week, marking a continuation of this historical precedent.
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