The application of immigration and customs of the United States transported 177 migrants from the Guantanamo Bay to Honduras for final extraction to Venezuela, according to a Publish in x of the agency.
Most migrants housed in Guantanamo Bay were Venezuelans.
Venezuelan migrants flew from the Bay of Guantanamo through Honduras, walk after reaching a deportation flight at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, state of La Guaira, Venezuela, February 20, 2025.
Leonardo Fernández Viloria/Reuters
In judicial presentations, the Government said that the operation of Guantanamo Bay was “destined to be a temporary stop” on the road to repatriation. The migrants left on two flights on Thursday.
Venezuelan migrants flew from the Guantanamo Bay through Honduras, walk after reaching a deportation flight at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, state of La Guaira, Venezuela, February 20, 2025.
Leonardo Fernández Viloria/Reuters
The secretary of the National Security Department, Kristi Noem, said in a brief video in early February that he visited the base and reviewed the operations that the Department of National Security and the Department of Defense were standing.
“I am here in the Guantanamo Bay, reviewing some of the operations we are standing to house the worst of the worst, and the illegal criminals of the United States of America will not be there for a long time,” he said in a video in X .
“Ice intends to use [Naval Station Guantanamo Bay] As a temporary staging center for repatriated foreigners and hopes that the average duration of the MOC stay will be so limited to the time necessary to carry out the elimination orders, “wrote an ICE official on Thursday.
The first American military plane that leads migrants arrested to a detention center in the Bay of Guantanamo, who the spokeswoman of the National Security Department, Tricia McLaughlin, called “highly dangerous criminal foreigners”, is addressed from an un specified place in the United States on February 4, 2025.
DHS/Reuters
There were 10 American military flights that originally transported all migrants to Guantanamo Bay, and the former had 10 migrants arriving on February 4.
“These 10 high threat people are currently in vacant detention facilities,” said the Department of Defense in a statement at that time. “The application of immigration and customs of the United States is taking this measure to guarantee the safe arrest of these people until they can be transported to their country of origin or other appropriate destination.”
And Noem added in a Publish in x At that time, “President @realdonaldtrump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will have the worst of the worst. That begins today.”
While some of the migrants were alleged members of the Venezuelan Train of Aragua, the charges they faced were not clear.
“Where are you going to put a Aragua train before sending them back?” The Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asked. “How about a maximum security prison in Guantanamo Bay, where we have the space?”
The Migrant Operations Center for Guantanamo Bay was appointed by President Donald Trump in a January 29 Executive Order By houseing migrants without legal status living in the United States. The migrant operations center, separated from the high security prison installation that has been used to contain Al Qaeda detainees, was well operational to “full capacity”, according to the order.
A photo published by the National Security Department of the first flight of migrants who were part of the Train of Aragua, preparing to take off for the Bay of Guantanamo, on February 4, 2025.
DHS
The elimination of migrants from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras follows migrants to be given access this Thursday to talk to their lawyers by phone.
DHS said at that time that he was determining “viability and need” for visits in person of migrant lawyers.
“There is a lot of space to accommodate many people,” Trump said on February 4. “So we will use it.
“Migrants are rough, but we also have some bad,” he added. “I would like to get them out. Everything would be subject to the laws of our land, and we are seeing that to see if we can.”
It is not clear if there will be future migrant flights to Guantanamo Bay.
Luis Martínez, Laura Romero and Stacey Dec of ABC News contributed to this report.
